A petition urging NVIDIA to bring back co-founder Jensen Huang as CEO showed more than 115,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon, Nov. 14, according to TechCrunch. The campaign gained a high-profile supporter on Friday when Elon Musk said he would sign. NVIDIA is moving ahead with its search for a permanent CEO, with Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress serving as interim chief executive.
"A petition is underway to reinstate Jensen and I'm signing it too," Musk wrote on X on Nov. 13. Earlier, when another user suggested Musk hire Huang at one of his companies, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO replied, "That would be an honor." Musk's post on X.
The organizers of Stand with Jensen said Saturday that theirs was the petition Musk signed. Their open letter asks NVIDIA's board to reinstate Huang while an independent investigation proceeds and to disclose more about its handling of his departure. The organizers also told followers they were removing fake entries from the public signature list.
Inside NVIDIA, employees have been pressing the board through a separate channel. WIRED reported that a post on an internal employee forum drew more than 1,600 comments, with several employees urging directors to bring Huang back. An employee who spoke to Business Insider on Saturday said the comment count had since more than doubled.
Huang's departure followed a Nov. 8 message to staff in which he acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife, apologized to his family and colleagues, and pledged to cooperate with an independent investigation into national security concerns raised in news reports. On Nov. 10, NVIDIA's independent directors said they had retained former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and his law firm to conduct the investigation.
NVIDIA disclosed that its board accepted Huang's resignation as president, CEO and director on Nov. 11 and announced the leadership change the following day. Kress continues to serve as CFO while leading the company, and the board said it would consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent role. As of Saturday evening, NVIDIA had made no public announcement about reinstating Huang.
