Why Nvidia Employees Want Jensen Huang Back

Nvidia employees are urging the company’s board to reconsider the departure of co-founder Jensen Huang, showing the difficulty of separating the leadership of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence chipmaker from the executive who built it over more than three decades.

An internal employee suggestion-box post calling on the board to consider staff sentiment about Huang’s future has attracted more than 1,600 comments, with several employees asking directors to find a way to bring him back. “If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,” one anonymous employee wrote.

Another employee argued that Huang deserved another opportunity, saying people could make mistakes despite their contributions to the company.

The comments reflect the loyalty Huang commands among some employees after transforming Nvidia from a graphics processor manufacturer into a central supplier of the computing infrastructure powering the global artificial intelligence industry.

They also expose a challenge for the company’s leadership as it attempts to manage an abrupt transition without undermining the culture, strategic direction and investor confidence that helped propel its growth.

Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a member of its board, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was appointed interim chief executive as directors began searching for a permanent successor.

The employee post was originally submitted by a longtime engineer before Huang’s departure. It asked the board to disclose the findings of its investigation, consult employees formally and consider whether he should remain chief executive.

Some employees have also expressed support publicly. About two dozen Nvidia employees posted messages backing Huang on LinkedIn in the days following his departure, while another employee sent a companywide email demanding greater transparency about the circumstances surrounding his exit.

“I stand by Jensen,” the employee wrote, arguing that supporting fairness did not require distancing oneself from a leader whose contribution to the company had been substantial.

An Nvidia employee who had worked at the company for several year said that support for Huang appeared widespread and warned that the company could struggle without him at the helm. “Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen,” the employee said.

The attachment reflects more than personal loyalty to a chief executive. Huang has been closely associated with Nvidia’s technological direction, its organisational culture and its expanding influence across the artificial intelligence industry.

He co-founded the company in 1993 and spent 33 years turning it into a dominant supplier of graphics processing units, the specialised chips used to train and run increasingly sophisticated AI models. His early investment in parallel computing and the CUDA software platform helped establish an ecosystem of developers and researchers that became a major competitive advantage as demand for AI computing accelerated.

His management style also made him an unusually influential figure inside the organisation. Huang has more than 60 direct reports, an unconventional structure intended to reduce corporate hierarchy and allow executives to exchange information across departments. He has also favoured group discussions over traditional one-on-one meetings, arguing that wider access to information helps the company make decisions faster.

His departure raises questions about whether the company can preserve the operating model that helped it move ahead of rivals in an industry where product development cycles, access to advanced manufacturing and relationships with major technology customers are increasingly important.

Nvidia’s financial performance illustrates the scale of the business Huang leaves behind. Revenue in its second quarter of fiscal 2027, ended July 26, reached $96.2 billion, more than doubling from a year earlier. Data centre revenue, which includes sales of AI computing infrastructure, increased 117% to $89 billion, accounting for more than 92% of total revenue.

The company forecast third-quarter revenue of approximately $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, reflecting continued investment by cloud computing companies, AI developers and enterprises in computing capacity.

That growth has also made Huang an important intermediary between Nvidia and the companies building the infrastructure for artificial intelligence. He has cultivated relationships with technology executives, investors and policymakers, while Nvidia has expanded beyond chip sales through investments in AI startups and infrastructure providers.

His departure could create uncertainty beyond the company’s workforce, particularly among customers and business partners accustomed to dealing directly with its founder.

The challenge facing Kress is to maintain those relationships while reassuring investors that Nvidia’s technological strategy and commercial execution will not depend on one individual.

Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013 after senior finance positions at Microsoft and Cisco, has spent more than a decade overseeing its finances. Her appointment provides continuity in financial management, but her leadership comes at a time when Nvidia must balance aggressive investment in AI infrastructure with concerns about the sustainability of spending across the industry.

Kress had previously challenged some of Huang’s more ambitious financing proposals, including investments involving OpenAI and AI infrastructure companies. The differences highlighted the competing priorities within Nvidia as it sought to accelerate AI infrastructure development while managing financial exposure. Investing.com

The transition has also raised questions about the extent to which Nvidia’s culture can survive without the founder who shaped it. Huang’s hands-on approach has allowed him to maintain influence across engineering, product development and commercial strategy, but it has also concentrated significant decision-making authority around one executive.

For some employees, that concentration appears to be a source of confidence rather than concern. They associate Huang’s leadership with the company’s success and fear that a new chief executive could introduce a different management philosophy at a critical point in the AI industry’s development.

The board has appointed longtime Nvidia investor Harvey Jones as its first chairman and said it would consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent chief executive position. Kress has said the company would build on the foundation established by Huang while maintaining its focus on customers, partners and technological development.

Huang’s departure followed revelations about three extramarital relationships, including his admission in an email to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife. The controversy also brought scrutiny over reports of relationships involving two individuals linked to Nvidia and potential national security concerns. The allegations have not all been independently established, and the company has faced questions about whether any sensitive corporate information or national security interests were compromised.

The board’s decision to replace him has consequently placed employees in an uncomfortable position, balancing their assessment of his professional contribution against questions about executive accountability and corporate governance.

There is, however, little evidence that the internal calls for his return represent the position of Nvidia’s entire workforce. The suggestion-box comments and public messages demonstrate support among some employees, but do not establish a companywide consensus. Neither Huang nor the board has indicated that he will return.

The next test for Nvidia’s leadership will come on November 17, when the company is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results, followed by an employee meeting on November 18, according to company communications.

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