Jensen Huang could become NVIDIA CEO again
Jensen Huang is discussing a return as NVIDIA CEO with allies. By November 15, a petition in his support had gathered more than 150, thousand signatures.
Who is backing Huang’s return
According to one person familiar with the matter, Huang’s allies are assembling a group of tech executives to persuade NVIDIA’s board to reinstate him as CEO. They also plan to seek support from the White House. The source told the Financial Times that Huang supports these efforts.
An open letter, Stand with Jensen, was backed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Replit CEO Amjad Masad and Y Combinator head Garry Tan. The authors of the letter are asking for Huang to be reinstated while an independent investigation is conducted, given the chance to respond to the allegations, and allowed to publicly explain why the board accepted his resignation.
According to the South China Morning Post, by the time the petition had gathered 136, thousand signatures, more than 6,800 signatories had identified themselves as current NVIDIA employees and more than 73, thousand as shareholders. The organizers say this information is provided by the signatories themselves and is not verified. WIRED also reported that a petition on NVIDIA’s internal system had received more than 1,600 comments, most of them supporting Huang’s return.
Investment fund managers Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management sent the board a separate letter. They urged it not to rush to appoint a permanent CEO and to consider bringing Huang back once the circumstances of his departure become clear.
Who is leading NVIDIA after the resignation
The board accepted Huang’s resignation on November 11, and NVIDIA announced it the following day. The co-founder stepped down as president and CEO and left the board. Colette Kress, who retained her role as CFO, took over as interim head of the company. Harvey Jones became NVIDIA’s first chairman of the board.
NVIDIA is considering candidates from within and outside the company. According to the Financial Times, the board has already contacted Arm CEO Rene Haas. The Washington Post reported that Huang himself took part in the search for a successor and called at least one potential candidate. NVIDIA has yet to announce who will take the role permanently.
What NVIDIA and US authorities are investigating
The board launched an independent investigation after reports of a connection between Huang and Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed. According to media reports, US officials suspected her of working for Chinese intelligence. The Associated Press reported that the US Justice Department has not yet reached a conclusion about her involvement. Megaspeed said Alice Huang left the company in August 2025 and hired outside lawyers to conduct its own review.
On November 15, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged NVIDIA to look for a new CEO from outside the company and said he expected answers within ten days to questions about compliance with export restrictions. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, said Huang and NVIDIA representatives had agreed to give closed-door testimony. A date is still being arranged.
On November 17, NVIDIA will publish its results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027. It will be the company’s first quarterly report since the change in leadership.
