Nvidia employees are internally lobbying for Jensen Huang to return to the role of chief executive, according to internal correspondence published by Wired. Some staff are actively seeking his return after Huang submitted a sudden resignation, which the board of directors announced on Thursday morning.
Huang sent an email last Sunday in which he admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and stated that he had no excuse. The admission followed reports of an affair with a person suspected of being a Chinese intelligence agent. The resignation was made public after information emerged regarding an alleged second affair with a direct subordinate, while Reuters reported on a supposed affair with another company employee. The former chief executive has not commented on the new allegations since his Sunday email.
Huang is 63 years old and has led Nvidia since its founding in 1993. One long-serving engineer left a proposal in the company's internal system just before the resignation, urging the board to consider employee opinion before making any drastic decisions. The engineer's post gathered more than 1,600 comments, with numerous employees asking the board to find a way for Huang to return to the head of the company.
One anonymous commenter stated that if they believe in the mission, they must bring the boss back. Another commenter added that everyone is human and can make mistakes, emphasising that Jensen had done many good things and deserved a second chance. One employee sent an email to the entire company explicitly demanding transparency regarding Huang's departure. In that message, they highlighted that they stood with Jensen not because they believed he was infallible, but because they refused to believe that the fight for integrity meant distancing themselves from a person whose leadership had meant so much to everyone in the firm.
Many workers had expected the board to first conduct and complete an internal investigation before any major changes occurred. Huang left Nvidia just as the investigation was beginning. The same employee concluded in their email that if America betrays a man who helped build its future, then this world does not deserve Huang.
Nvidia's board of directors is largely composed of early investors and Huang's long-time associates. The board appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive, while former Synopsys chief Harvey Jones took over the position of board chair.
