Ousted Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang is discussing a possible comeback to the company just days after the board of directors pushed him out, the Financial Times reported.
Huang, who admitted having an affair with a suspected Chinese spy and was reported to have another with an Nvidia vice president, has been discussing the idea of returning as several Silicon Valley allies have begun lobbying for him to come back, the newspaper reported.
In a social post late last week, Altimeter Capital Management and Atreides Management cited “the extraordinary success of Jensen Huang’s leadership over a long period of time” and the uncertainty created by his departure in urging the board to take a “slow, measured, and deliberate” approach to Nvidia’s future leadership.
That should include “the potential return of Jensen Huang,” Altimeter’s Brad Gerstner and Atreides’ Gavin Baker wrote in a letter to Nvidia’s board posted on X.
Prior to Huang’s resignation, a longtime Nvidia engineer had urged the board in an internal post to consider employee sentiment before taking any action, according to Wired. The post has since drawn thousands of comments, with several urging the board to find a way to bring Huang back, the technology news platform said, citing internal correspondence it reviewed. Nvidia has about 42,000 employees worldwide.
Billionaire Elon Musk separately said on X that a petition was underway to reinstate Huang and that he would sign it. It was not immediately clear whether Musk was referring to the internal effort reported by Wired .
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that Nvidia needs a “dramatic shakeup” in leadership and should go outside the company to find new leadership after a series of accusations that the company facilitated sales of its advanced artificial intelligence chips to Chinese entities.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Nvidia’s board has approached British chipmaker Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas in its search for a potential successor to Huang.
Haas’ name has been making the rounds among analysts since Huang’s exit. He spent seven formative years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013.
He is among several candidates being considered and there is no guarantee he will be offered the job or accept it, the FT reported. Nvidia’s finance chief Colette Kress is currently interim CEO.
Nvidia’s board said it was in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO role and had not formally engaged any potential candidates.
“Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature,” the board said in a statement.
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