Nvidia crisis: Musk backs petition to reinstate Jensen Huang

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has thrown his weight behind calls for the reinstatement of Jensen Huang as Chief Executive Officer of Nvidia, saying he would sign a petition seeking the former CEO’s return.

Musk remarked in a comment on X on Friday while responding to a post by Yun-Ta Sai, a senior staff engineer at Tesla, who urged Nvidia employees to take action if they wanted Huang reinstated.

“A petition is underway to reinstate Jensen, and I’m signing it too,” Musk wrote.

Sai had argued that Nvidia employees, particularly its engineers, had the collective influence to challenge the company’s leadership decision, stressing that experienced Graphics Processing Unit, GPU, engineers were difficult to find and replace.

“If NVIDIA employees want Jensen back, they should start with ‘NVIDIA is nothing without its people’ – resign and chill.

“Good GPU engineers are very hard to find and even harder to replace than ML engineers.

“Engineers should take their destiny into their own hands if they love the company. They shape and deliver the company mission, not the boards,” Sai wrote.

The development comes barely days after Huang’s sudden resignation from Nvidia, the chipmaking giant he co-founded in 1993 and led for 33 years.

The company’s board accepted his resignation as president, CEO and board member on November 11, with Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress appointed interim CEO pending the selection of a permanent successor.

Huang’s departure followed revelations about alleged extramarital relationships, including reports linking him to a woman suspected by some US intelligence officials of having connections to Chinese intelligence.

Huang had reportedly admitted in a message to Nvidia employees that he was unfaithful to his wife, while the company’s board initiated an independent investigation into the allegations.

The espionage claims have not been established publicly.