THE CRUNCH
A petition calling on Nvidia to reinstate Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO who resigned on Thursday, had drawn more than 115,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon. The campaign, titled "Stand with Jensen", says its signers include around 5,900 current Nvidia employees, roughly 1,100 former employees and more than 62,000 shareholders, though the site notes those affiliations are self-reported and unverified. High-profile backers include Elon Musk, who said on X that he signed, along with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Replit CEO Amjad Masad and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan.
The petition argues that Huang was removed "without meaningful due process" and asks the board to bring him back while an independent investigation establishes the facts, give him a fair hearing and explain its decision publicly. "Jensen deserves due process, not mob justice," it says.
Huang resigned four days after admitting in an 8 November email to staff that he had an affair with a chip executive suspected by US intelligence of being a Chinese spy, and after a second relationship with an Nvidia executive was reported. The board has appointed CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement, and Nvidia's stock fell sharply through the week.