More than 5,000 current Nvidia employees among signatories; petition calls for due process

Altimeter Capital CEO urges board to choose successor carefully

Women in tech criticize petition, saying 'power corrupts'

Then-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks with reporters at an AI ecosystem reception held in Tokyo, Japan, on July 16 (local time). [Reuters]
Then-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks with reporters at an AI ecosystem reception held in Tokyo, Japan, on July 16 (local time). [Reuters]

An online petition calling for the reinstatement of Nvidia founder Jensen Huang as CEO has surpassed 100,000 signatures, drawing support from Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley figures. Nvidia's board, meanwhile, is separately searching for a successor.

As of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time Saturday (local time), the petition site "Stand with Jensen" had collected more than 100,000 signatures, according to Yahoo Finance and MoneyWise. Some outlets later reported the total had exceeded 120,000. The site states it has no affiliation with Nvidia or Huang, and its operators have not been publicly identified.

Among the signatories were 5,248 current Nvidia employees, 922 former employees, 53,233 shareholders and 40,745 other supporters. The identities have not been verified, and some names appear to be duplicates or fictitious. Nvidia employed approximately 42,000 people as of the end of its last fiscal year.

Musk said Friday on X, formerly Twitter, that he would sign the petition. Y Combinator's Garry Tan, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, Replit's Amjad Masad and Atreides Management's Gavin Baker also appeared on the list of signatories. Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner called on the board to choose a successor carefully.

The petition urges the board to reinstate Huang until an independent investigation confirms the facts of the matter. It also calls for the scope, independence and timeline of any probe to be disclosed, for Huang to be given an opportunity to respond before any final decision is made, and for the grounds for his removal to be made public. The petition's operators argued that Huang was likely forced out without due process or a fair hearing. They contend that, given his role in building Nvidia into the world's largest AI chipmaker over the past 33 years, the circumstances of his departure warrant scrutiny.

According to Yahoo Finance's live coverage, Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair on Nov. 8. The board held a meeting Wednesday night and decided to remove him, according to reports. A successor search is underway. The Financial Times reported Friday that the board had reached out to Arm CEO Rene Haas, though Haas is one of several candidates and it is unclear whether a formal offer was made. Nvidia told Bloomberg that no candidates had been formally approached and that speculation about individual candidates — internal or external — was premature.

A separate letter bearing the names of Nvidia executives, including Ian Buck, also circulated online, though whether those individuals actually signed it could not be confirmed. According to Financial News, the letter shares most of its language with one sent by OpenAI employees when Sam Altman was ousted in 2023.

Some women in the technology industry have pushed back. Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, criticized the petition, saying "power corrupts" and that "people do stupid things when they think they're invincible." Some have also floated a conspiracy theory that, because Huang was the biggest backer of open AI models, his departure could benefit OpenAI and Anthropic. Angel investor Jason Calacanis noted on the All-In podcast Saturday that Nvidia had lost its CEO just as Anthropic was preparing for a major initial public offering.


andy@heraldcorp.com