Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday backed a purported petition seeking the reinstatement of Jensen Huang as chief executive of Nvidia, saying in a reply to a user on X, "A petition is underway to reinstate Jensen, and I'm signing it too." Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led its transformation into one of the world's leading suppliers of artificial intelligence chips, resigned on Thursday amid mounting scrutiny over reports of his alleged extramarital relationships.
The most serious of the reports concerns Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman associated with Singapore-based data company Megaspeed International, one of Nvidia's major customers. US intelligence officials reportedly suspect her of having links to Chinese intelligence services, adding a national security dimension to the controversy. The Wall Street Journal reported that she was the woman referred to in a letter Huang sent to Nvidia employees, in which he acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife and apologised for violating her trust. The New York Times separately reported an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, citing five people who worked at the company and saying the two were captured on video behaving affectionately at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, has also reported that Huang allegedly had an intimate relationship with a second company employee.S1
Support for Huang has come from prominent figures, including US President Donald Trump and Musk, who earlier said he would be honoured to work with Huang after a user suggested he hire the Nvidia co-founder. Wired reported that a longtime Nvidia engineer urged colleagues in an internal post to consider employee sentiment before the board made any decision, and that the post drew more than 1,600 comments, several calling on the company to find a way to bring back its former chief. It was not immediately clear whether Musk was referring to that employee initiative.S1S2
Nvidia's board said it was selecting an executive search firm to help identify the next CEO and had not formally approached any candidates, stating that "any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature." The Financial Times reported on Friday that the board had approached Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas, who spent seven years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before leaving in 2013. Haas has led Arm since 2022, overseeing its Nasdaq listing in 2023, but he is only one of several names under consideration and there is no certainty he will be offered or accept the role. Nvidia and Arm declined to comment on the reports, and Reuters could not independently verify them.S2
