Elon Musk wants Jensen Huang back at the helm of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) – and he’s putting his name in it.
“There is a petition underway to reinstate Jensen and I am signing it too,” the Tesla and SpaceX (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO posted on X on November 13.
He is not alone. As of 10:30 a.m. ET on November 14, an online letter titled Stand with Jensen listed more than 100,000 names, including more than 5,000 people claiming to currently work at Nvidia.
Huang co-founded the chipmaker in 1993 and led it for 33 years, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies. Nvidia announced on November 12 that he had resigned as president, CEO and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. The board accepted his resignation on Nov. 11, according to a regulatory filing. CFO Colette Kress is now interim CEO and director Harvey Jones has become the first-ever chairman of the board.
His departure came after reports that he had extramarital affairs, including one with Alice Huang (no relation), a former Singapore-based Megaspeed executive who U.S. intelligence officials say was recruited by China’s top spy agency. Huang admitted to an affair. Neither he nor Nvidia have been accused of wrongdoing so far.
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What the Stand with Jensen petition asks for
The Stand with Jensen letter asks the board to “bring back Jensen while an independent investigation establishes the facts, unless and until you can provide compelling evidence that his removal is in NVIDIA’s best interests.”
Beyond reinstatement, the letter asks the board to disclose the scope, independence and timeline of its investigation, give Huang a chance to respond before any final decision and publicly explain the evidence that justifies his reinstatement. The signatories say they have not been shown proof that the woman at the center of the controversy was a spy, and argue that Huang deserves “due process, not mob justice.”
The site states that it is not affiliated with Nvidia or Huang. Signatories identify themselves and organizers state that they may hold new signatures for review before counting them.
Who has signed so far
At this point, the site’s live tracker has broken down the names like this:
The numbers are changing quickly and are probably already outdated. As a reminder, Nvidia had around 42,000 employees at the end of its last fiscal year in January, according to its annual report, so current self-identified staff would represent around 12% of the company.
Musk is among the top shareholders, alongside Replit CEO Amjad Masad; Gavin Baker, managing partner of Atreides Management; Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games; and Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator. Aidan Gomez of Cohere and Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics, are listed as partners. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke replied “You have my sword” to Musk’s petition post, although Moneywise did not find his name on the list.
Identities on the site are self-reported and the list includes entries that appear false or duplicated, including at least one offensive name listed as a current Nvidia employee. There is even an unverifiable entry for actress Sydney Sweeney listed as a shareholder. Totals are best read as a rough measure of support rather than a true tally.
At Nvidia, staff want answers
The backlash began within the company. A longtime engineer posted to Nvidia’s internal suggestion box, urging the board to weigh employee sentiment before acting, according to internal correspondence reviewed by Wired. The post attracted more than 1,600 comments, many asking the board to find a way to bring Huang back.
One employee sent a company-wide email demanding transparency about Huang’s departure, writing: “I support Jensen. » About two dozen employees posted their support on LinkedIn, and Moneywise found no employee posts supporting his departure.
“Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen,” one employee told Wired.
In an informal poll, we asked Moneywise subscribers if Nvidia should bring back Jensen. Out of 164 votes, 82% answered “very certainly”. Only 6% said “absolutely not,” while 12% said “he’s poaching them all,” a nod to the idea that Nvidia employees would follow Huang wherever he goes next.
Musk has been in Huang’s corner all week
This message follows days of public support from Musk. On the night of November 11, before Huang resigned, Musk responded “It would be an honor” to a ZeroHedge article urging him to hire Huang. The next day, he replied “True words” to AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, who wrote that “you don’t just replace the founder,” pointing to Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick.
When Ravikant went on to call Huang “the Steve Jobs of Nvidia” and “irreplaceable,” Musk responded, “True.” He also replied “Always” to a message praising him for being a true friend to Huang.
Both go back years. In May, Musk replied “True” to a repost of photos of the couple taken ten years apart, captioned “The most important thing in life is to have real friends.”
Musk also has a commercial interest in the outcome. His rocket and AI company, SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), has committed to building its AI data centers exclusively with Nvidia chips, and Nvidia has a stake in SpaceX worth billions. The petition site also lists him as an Nvidia shareholder.
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What is Huang doing now?
Since his resignation, Huang has kept a low profile. Photos published by the Daily Mail show friends and family gathered at what the outlet describes as his $38 million Pacific Heights mansion in San Francisco in the hours after his resignation, as food deliveries, including bags of fried chicken, arrived at the door.
Washington is not done with him. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Huang agreed to come. Three House committee chairmen then asked him to sit down for a closed-door transcribed interview on December 1, giving him until 8 p.m. ET on November 13 to confirm or face a subpoena. It was not immediately clear whether Huang had confirmed in writing before the deadline.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., separately asked Huang to testify on Dec. 3. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whom Scott also called to testify, agreed to appear.
Questions that haven’t been answered
Supporters of the petition say the board acted before the facts were known and the central question remains open. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on November 12 that the Justice Department or I had not reached any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was a spy, according to Reuters. Beijing has denied it is one, and President Donald Trump has said it’s not yet clear one way or the other.
What appears in the file is more restricted. Singapore’s Home Ministry said on November 12 that it had been barred from re-entering the country since February as part of an investigation into possible offenses linked to Megaspeed, although it clarified that the investigation did not involve espionage.
Could he really come back?
There is recent precedent. In November 2023, OpenAI’s board fired CEO Sam Altman, then reached a deal to bring him back about five days later after hundreds of employees threatened to quit.
Even the White House weighed in on both sides. President Donald Trump called Huang on Tuesday to urge him to fight for his job, The New York Times reported. After Huang resigned, Trump posted on Truth Social that there was “only one man to replace him”: Apple Chairman Tim Cook.
But the decision rests with Nvidia’s board, and it has given no sign of changing course. The company is continuing its own investigation into Huang, according to The Information. On November 13, the board said it was still in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO position and had not formally engaged any potential candidates, after the Financial Times reported that it had contacted Arm CEO René Haas. Washington’s scrutiny also extends beyond Huang himself: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has questioned whether Nvidia knows who it is selling chips to.
Sam Altman returned within five days, so there’s still time to see how this plays out. Time is running out until Nvidia’s earnings call on Tuesday.
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This article was originally published on Moneywise.com under the title: Elon Musk joins more than 100,000 signatories to a petition to reinstate Jensen Huang, including more than 5,000 who say they work at Nvidia.
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