Some Nvidia employees are demanding the return of Jensen Huang even after his multiple extramarital affairs and abrupt resignation, according to internal correspondence reviewed by WIRED.
An internal “suggestion box” message submitted before Huang’s resignation by a longtime Nvidia engineer urged the company’s board to consider employee opinion before taking any action. Since then, the submission has attracted more than 1,600 comments, many asking board members to find a way to bring Huang back.
“If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“We are all human and can make mistakes. Jensen has done so many good things and he needs a second chance,” another wrote.
One employee went so far as to send a company-wide email demanding transparency about Huang’s departure. “I support Jensen,” the staffer wrote. “Not because I believe any person is infallible, but because I refuse to believe that standing up for fairness must mean distancing ourselves from someone whose leadership has meant so much to us.”
The employee could not be reached for comment, while the engineer who posted the suggestion box declined to comment.
Nvidia and its new board chairman, investor Harvey Jones, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Huang, a 63-year-old who has 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.” This recognition follows reports of an affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence agent. The board announced Huang’s resignation Thursday morning, following reports of an alleged second affair with a direct report. (That employee has not commented on the matter.) Since then, Reuters has reported on an alleged affair with another Nvidia employee. Huang has not commented on the reports since his email on Sunday.
Nvidia’s board is largely made up of Nvidia’s early investors and Huang’s longtime confidants. He named Nvidia CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and former Synopsys CEO Harvey Jones as board chair. The crisis has cost the company $1 trillion in market value since the allegations surfaced, prompted investigations by U.S. lawmakers and the FBI and raised the prospect of new chip export controls.
It was business as usual at the company throughout this week, but Huang’s resignation left many employees stunned. In the hours that followed, about two dozen employees posted their support for Huang on LinkedIn, with one describing their confidence in his leadership as unwavering. During the same period, WIRED could not identify any messages from Nvidia employees supporting his resignation.
Many employees expected a board investigation to be concluded before major changes occurred. For example, the suggestion box message called on the board to share its findings with employees and formally solicit their input “on whether Jensen will continue as CEO.”
Instead, Huang left just as the investigation had begun. Employees seek to better understand why. “If America fails the man who helped build its future,” the employee said in the company-wide email, “then this world does not deserve Jensen Huang.”
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