Open letter to reinstate Jensen Huang as Nvidia CEO gets over 131,000 signatures, including Elon Musk

An open letter calling for the reinstatement of former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has garnered over 131,000 signatures as of the time of writing on Nov. 15.

Names on the board include the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Replit CEO Amjad Masad and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney.

Musk and Masad also promoted the petition on X.

The Stand with Jensen campaign noted that its list of signatories consists of more than 71,000 shareholders and 6,500 current Nvidia employees.

The website also displays a breakdown of the roles of the Nvidia employees who signed the petition.

According to Business Insider, an Nvidia employee signatory said that similar efforts were happening internally on the company's portal, where staff can submit their thoughts.

Around 1,200 former Nvidia employees also put their name down.

Organisers say Jensen deserves "due process"

The campaign aims to get the Nvidia board to reinstate Jensen as CEO while an independent investigation establishes the facts.

It also hopes that Jensen receives a fair hearing, and that a timely public explanation is provided, explaining the concerns, evidence and how employees' and shareholders' interests were weighed.

On its website, its organisers and signers said they believe and "are concerned that Jensen may have been forced out without due process and without even a few days to make his case".

They also pointed out that they have not been shown evidence that Alice Huang is a spy, stating that "suspicion or association alone" is not enough to end Jensen's leadership.

"For thirty-three years, Jensen poured his heart and soul into building NVIDIA. He bet it on ideas that most of the industry dismissed, carried it through years when the bets looked foolish, and stayed long enough to see them change how the world computes. Many of us joined because of him. Many of us stayed because of how he treated the work: as something worth getting right, together, at whatever hour it took. This company is the work of his life. That deserves more than gratitude after the fact. It deserves fairness now."

The open letter noted: "Thirty-three years of leadership do not place anyone above accountability."

"But accountability requires evidence, a fair hearing, and a reasoned decision. Jensen deserves due process, not mob justice."

The timeline

Huang is married to Lori Mills, his college sweetheart. The couple have two children, both of whom work at Nvidia.

In late October 2026, Huang's close relationship with purported spy Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, was reported by The New York Times.

The U.S. government launched a probe into their relationship, and Huang later admitted his unfaithfulness in a company-wide email on Nov. 8. However, he did not name who he had an affair with.

A second affair with Nvidia's healthcare vice president, Kimberly Powell, was revealed about three days after.

On Nov. 12, Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO.

Just hours after his resignation announcement, a third affair with an unnamed woman, reportedly also an employee, was uncovered.

Nvidia published a press release on its CEO transition on Nov. 12, stating that the Board was initiating a search for a permanent CEO and would consider internal and external candidates to replace Huang.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nvidia, Colette Kress, has been appointed Interim CEO.