Nvidia employees are pressing the board to bring back Jensen Huang, who resigned as chief executive on Thursday, Nov. 12. An internal suggestion-box post has drawn more than 1,600 comments, many calling for his return, WIRED reported the same day.
Nvidia’s board has not answered in public. Interim CEO Colette Kress has called her first company-wide meeting for Nov. 18, the day after quarterly results. Employees will wait nearly a week to question the new leadership.
What WIRED reported from inside Nvidia
A longtime engineer wrote the post before Huang stepped down. It urged the board to consider “employee sentiment before taking any action,” according to Stocktwits’ account of WIRED’s report. After the resignation, the comment thread turned into a campaign to reverse it. “If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,” one employee wrote, The Week reported, citing WIRED.
Some staff asked why Huang left before the board’s own investigation was finished. One employee sent a company-wide email asking leadership to explain the circumstances of his exit.
About two dozen employees backed Huang on LinkedIn within hours. WIRED found no public posts from Nvidia staff supporting the resignation, News Karnataka reported. The same account says Nvidia and its new chair, Harvey C. Jones, did not immediately respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.
1,600 comments is not 1,600 employees
The headline number needs care. It counts comments, and one person can post many. It is not a petition with signatures or a vote of the workforce.
Even if every comment came from a different person, the total would be small next to the company. Nvidia had about 42,000 employees in 38 countries at the end of January, its latest annual report says. By our arithmetic, 1,600 is about 3.8% of that.
What the thread does show is intensity. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC the mood inside was “more complicated” than headlines suggested. Some employees were in tears, and many had come to idolize Huang, according to CNBC’s live coverage.
A circulating “letter” echoes OpenAI’s 2023 revolt
A second claim is spreading alongside WIRED’s report, and it is much weaker.
Hong Kong’s The Standard carried what it described as a letter signed by “hundreds” of Nvidia employees. It says the board lacks the “competence” to oversee Nvidia. It also claims “Elon Musk has assured us that there are positions for all Nvidia employees” at SpaceX. The paper named no source, gave no signature count and carried no response from Musk or Nvidia.
That wording tracks the letter OpenAI staff sent their board on Nov. 20, 2023, almost line for line. That letter said “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees.” It also attacked board members who “lack competence,” Engadget reported at the time.
WIRED’s account of the Nvidia suggestion box mentions no letter. Until someone produces the document and a named signer, we are treating it as unverified.
Why a reversal is harder than at OpenAI
The OpenAI comparison is the one employees are reaching for, and the differences matter. OpenAI’s board fired Sam Altman. More than 700 of its roughly 770 staff signed the letter, by Bloomberg’s count, and the company agreed late on Nov. 21, 2023, to bring him back with a new board, the Associated Press reported.
Huang was not fired, at least on paper. Nvidia’s Form 8-K says the board “accepted the resignation” on Nov. 11 from his posts as president, CEO and director.
Reversing that would need Huang to want the job back and the board to reappoint him. The company’s release carried no statement from Huang, and we found no public comment from him since. Our guide to Nvidia’s board explains who those directors are.
He did have encouragement from outside. President Trump called Huang before he resigned and urged him to keep fighting for his job, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the call. The Hill carried the Times report and Trump’s later comments.
Asked on Thursday whether Huang should have stepped down, Trump said it depended on the intelligence reports. “If the woman was a spy, yes,” he said.
The board’s own messages point the other way. Jones told employees Nvidia is searching for “a permanent successor looking at both internal and external candidates,” CNBC published. Our look at Nvidia’s executive bench covers who might be considered.
Kress meets staff on Nov. 18, Huang faces Congress on Dec. 1
“We will host a company meeting on November 18 at 9am PT,” Kress told employees, CNBC reported. Nvidia reports third-quarter results the afternoon before.
Kress also stays on as chief financial officer, and our profile of Colette Kress covers her career.
Some communications specialists think that is too long to wait. “‘Coming days’ to me does not mean six days away,” Annie Scranton, founder of Pace Public Relations, told Fortune.
Huang’s next date is in Washington. In a letter dated Nov. 12, the chairs of three House committees asked him to appear for a closed-door, transcribed interview on Dec. 1.
They gave Huang until 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, to confirm in writing, or “a subpoena will be issued.”