Nvidia said Thursday morning that Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive following reports of two affairs, one with an alleged Chinese spy and one with a direct report. The departure caps a rapid fall from grace for one of the biggest names in technology. The New York Times reported only on Friday that Huang and the suspected spy were "close," and hours after the resignation was announced, Reuters reported that Huang also had an "intimate relationship" with another Nvidia employee.
Many prominent voices in technology, along with the president of the United States, came out in support of Huang despite his ouster. The prevailing narrative among tech leaders on X was that the resignation was rushed, perhaps an overreaction to salacious news stories about his personal life, with some calling it a "waste" and a sad day for "all humanity." Others had a more neutral reaction, focusing on Huang's achievements at the company's helm.
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Huang "has done a fantastic job" and said there is only one man to take his place: "TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!"
Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, said in a reply to an X user that it would "be an honor" to hire Huang. He also responded to a post arguing that "one does not just simply replace the founder," which invoked Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick, by writing, "True words."
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it "a sad day for NVIDIA, developers, America, and all humanity," saying Huang "founded and ran one of the few companies to reach a massive scale while driving massive continued innovation and ubiquity, while others fell into the trap of ever-increasing extraction." Ahead of the resignation, Sweeney recalled how Huang "saved" a GDC 2015 presentation by dropping off a graphics card and wrote that "the dude truly is the visionary driver of the future of tech from the gaming GPU era to CUDA to AI supercomputers."
Anduril founder Palmer Luckey posted Wednesday night, before the resignation was announced, "China wants Jensen out, so I want him in." Automattic co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg reposted a message from after his brief September ouster as CEO: "Founder advice: If you don't have a coup attempt every few years, you're not hiring strong enough leaders." He added, "Just putting this back out there, for no reason whatsoever."
David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO of 37signals and creator of the Omarchy Linux distribution, wrote Thursday morning, "What a waste," replying to his own earlier post arguing that "NVIDIA would be wrong to fire Jensen. His marital indiscretions are between him, his wife, and a reprimand from the board. Have some proportionality." Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue, whose company Nvidia recently acquired for almost $13 billion, said, "This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened," adding, "we'll keep fighting for open-source AI, harder than ever. This is too important to slow down now. Let's go!"
Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw and an OpenAI employee, suggested the alleged spy may have succeeded, writing, "If that Spy's goal was to destabilize one of the most successful American companies, they achieved their goal," and calling the ouster "rushed and not right," a view Sweeney said he agreed with. Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas thanked Huang for "33 years of bold leadership," saying, "You built a small startup into America's most valuable company, with relentless improvement," and crediting Huang's "personal generosity with time and advice to founders like me."
All-In Podcast host Jason Calacanis reposted Trump's message, tagging Tim Cook and telling him to "Keep the seat warm" for Huang while "the investigation is sorted out," writing, "America needs you Mr. Cook." On Wednesday night, Calacanis argued that Nvidia shareholders should decide Huang's fate only after the investigation is complete, rather than the press or "online mobs." Lex Fridman, host of the Lex Fridman Podcast, said he had seen Huang show "kindness, humility, care to everyone around him," adding, "I'm in shock frankly at all of this, including the mass hysteria around it. I love America, and I think NVIDIA letting Jensen go is terrible for America. I stand with Jensen."
