Some Nvidia employees are calling for Jensen Huang’s return even after his multiple reported extramarital affairs and abrupt resignation, according to internal correspondence reviewed by WIRED.
An internal “suggestion box” post submitted before Huang’s resignation by a longtime engineer at Nvidia urged the company’s board to take employee sentiment into consideration prior to taking any action. The submission has attracted more than 1,600 comments since then, with several asking board members to find a way to bring back Huang.
“If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“We are all humans and can make mistakes. Jensen did so many good things and he needs a second chance,” wrote another.
One employee went as far as sending a companywide email demanding transparency into Huang’s exit. “I stand by Jensen,” the staffer wrote. “Not because I believe any person is infallible, but because I refuse to believe that standing for fairness must mean standing at a distance from someone whose leadership has meant so much to us.”
The employee couldn’t be reached for comment, while the engineer behind the suggestion box post declined to comment.
Nvidia and its new board chair, investor Harvey Jones, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Huang, a 63-year-old who had led Nvidia since its founding in 1993, wrote in an email to employees on Sunday that he had been “unfaithful to [his] wife” and that there was “no excuse.” The acknowledgement followed reports of an affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. The board announced Huang’s resignation on Thursday morning, following reports of an alleged second affair with a direct report. (This employee has not commented on the matter.) Since then, Reuters reported on an alleged affair with yet another Nvidia employee. Huang hasn’t commented about these reports since his Sunday email.
Nvidia’s board is largely made up of early Nvidia investors and Huang’s longtime confidants. It named Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress interim CEO and appointed former Synopsys CEO Harvey Jones as chair of the board. The crisis has cost the company $1 trillion in market value since the allegations surfaced, prompted investigations from US lawmakers and the FBI, and raised the prospect of new export controls on chips.
It’s been business as usual inside the company throughout this week, but Huang’s resignation left many employees stunned. In the hours after, about two dozen employees posted on LinkedIn in support of Huang, with one describing their faith in his leadership as unwavering. Over the same period, WIRED couldn’t identify any posts from Nvidia employees in support of his resignation.
One employee who has been at Nvidia for a couple of years and wasn’t authorized to speak publicly says they perceive the desire for Huang’s reinstatement as widespread. They worry the company will eventually suffer without its founder at the helm and say that the board must bring him back. “Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen,” the employee tells WIRED.
Many employees had expected a board investigation to conclude before any big changes would occur. For instance, the suggestion-box post called on the board to share its findings with employees and formally solicit their sentiment “about Jensen’s continuing as our CEO.”
Instead, Huang left just as the inquiry had begun. Staffers are seeking to better understand why. “If America fails the man who helped build its future,” the employee in the companywide email stated, “then this world does not deserve Jensen Huang.”