97,000 Signatures Demand Nvidia Reinstate Jensen Huang as CEO

A petition demanding Nvidia reinstate Jensen Huang as CEO reached roughly 97,000 signatures by Saturday morning, with Elon Musk among the prominent backers, days after the founder resigned over admitted affairs and an ongoing espionage review.

The campaign, called "Stand with Jensen," claims its signatory list includes more than 51,000 Nvidia shareholders, more than 5,100 current Nvidia employees, and nearly 900 former employees. Billionaire Elon Musk and Replit CEO Amjad Masad signed and promoted the petition on X. Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan also added their names.

The list is not clean. It includes "Tim Cruise, Hollywood actor" and "Xi Jingping," a possibly misspelled reference to the Chinese leader. The organizers said in an X post on Saturday that they were "actively working" to remove fake signatures.

Why did Huang resign?

Huang resigned on Thursday after reports surfaced that he had a second affair, this one with an Nvidia executive. The resignation came days after he admitted to an earlier affair in a letter to staffers. Nvidia's board appointed Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim CEO while the search for a permanent successor continues.

The board said earlier this week that it had opened an investigation into whether Huang was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort." An October report by The New York Times said Huang had developed a "close relationship" with Alice Huang, a tech executive at Megaspeed in Singapore. The Times reported that US intelligence officials said she may be a spy for the Chinese government. China has denied that claim. On Thursday, Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice had not concluded whether Alice Huang was a spy.

What do the petitioners want?

The organizers argue the board removed Huang without an investigation and "meaningful due process." They want him to remain CEO while the investigation continues.

"We have not been shown evidence substantiating the espionage allegation. After thirty-three years pouring his heart and soul into NVIDIA, Jensen deserves due process, not mob justice," the organizers wrote in an open letter to Nvidia's board posted on their website.

The letter sets specific demands for the board:

• Disclose the investigation's scope and timeline
• Give Huang a meaningful opportunity to respond
• Provide a clear, evidence-based explanation showing that any removal serves Nvidia's interests

"The campaign does not treat espionage allegations as proven facts or presume the inquiry's findings," the organizers said.

How are Nvidia employees reacting?

A signatory who describes himself as an Nvidia engineer called Huang an "essential part" of the company in a comment on the campaign website.

"His private affairs are none of my business, and if his actions violated our code of conduct, it has to be dealt with. Please bring him back and give him fair treatment, taking his track record and importance for NVIDIA and the wider community into account," the employee said.

That comment captures the tension inside the company: sympathy for a founder with a three-decade track record, alongside acceptance that conduct rules may have been broken.

Who replaces Huang?

Nvidia's board said in a statement that it will consider both internal and external candidates to replace Huang, who cofounded the company and served as CEO for more than thirty years. The board has not publicly identified a new chief executive, but the names of potential candidates have already begun to surface among analysts and investors.

The board now faces two simultaneous pressures: a succession process moving at market speed, and a public campaign — backed by some of tech's most influential figures — demanding it reverse course. The outcome of the intelligence investigation will likely decide which pressure prevails.