An internal âsuggestion boxâ post submitted before Huangâs resignation by a longtime engineer at Nvidia urged the companyâs 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. âIf you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,â wrote one anonymous commenter. âWe are all humans and can make mistakes. Jensen did so many good things and he needs a second chance,â wrote another.
One employee went as far as sending a companywide email demanding transparency into Huangâs exit. âI stand by Jensen,â the staffer wrote. âNot 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.â The employee couldnât be reached for comment, while the engineer behind
the suggestion box post declined to comment.
Nvidia and its new board chair, investor Harvey Jones, didnât immediately respond to requests for comment. Got a Tip? Are you a current or former Nvidia employee who wants to talk about whatâs happening? Weâd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at peard33.24.
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 âunfaithful to [his] wifeâ and that there was âno excuse.â The acknowledgement followed reports of an affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. The board announced Huangâs 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 hasnât commented about these reports since his Sunday email. Nvidiaâs board is largely made up of early Nvidia investors and Huangâs 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.
Itâs been business as usual inside the company throughout this week, but Huangâs 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 couldnât identify any posts from Nvidia employees in support of his resignation.
One employee who has been at Nvidia for a couple of years and wasnât authorized to speak publicly says they perceive the desire for Huangâs 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. âNvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen,â 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 âabout Jensenâs continuing as our CEO.â Instead, Huang left just as the inquiry had begun.
Staffers are seeking to better understand why. âIf America fails the man who helped build its future,â the employee in the companywide email stated, âthen this world does not deserve Jensen Huang.â
