Elon Musk, other tech execs sign petition calling on Nvidia to reinstate Jensen Huang

techcrunch.com Nov 15, 2026

Elon Musk, other tech execs sign petition calling on Nvidia to reinstate Jensen Huang

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 15, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

A petition demanding the reinstatement of Nvidia’s ousted CEO Jensen Huang has amassed over 115,000 signatures, including 5,965 current Nvidia employees, 1,108 former staff and 63,063 shareholders. High‑profile tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Amjad Masad, Tim Sweeney and Garry Tan have endorsed the effort, which argues that Huang was removed without “meaningful due process.” The petition calls for his return pending an independent investigation and greater public transparency. Huang resigned on Thursday after admitting an affair with a chip executive flagged by U.S. intelligence as a potential Chinese spy; he has agreed to testify before Congress. Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO and its shares have slumped sharply amid concerns over a funding gap for the AI sector.

💡 Why It Matters

· The backlash spotlights mounting pressure on corporate boards to uphold procedural fairness, even for founders, while threatening Nvidia’s leadership stability at a critical moment for AI investment.

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Asian governments react to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s exit

Jensen Huang’s resignation from Nvidia triggered varied reactions across Asia. Governments in China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan responded by confirming supply commitments, monitoring AI projects, and investigating related personnel. China denied spy allegations and opposed export controls that could disrupt supply chains. Singapore seized and later returned Alice Huang’s passport amid false‑declaration probes. South Korea reaffirmed a 260,000‑GPU supply plan, while Taiwan’s officials maintained that Nvidia’s overseas headquarters would proceed unchanged. Japan pledged to monitor the company closely to safeguard its semiconductor supply.

💡 The shift in Nvidia’s leadership could reshape supply dynamics for AI hardware, especially where U.S. export controls intersect with Chinese projects. Regional governments’ swift actions underscore the strategic importance of stable chip flows for national AI ambitions.

techcrunch.com · Nov 15

Where was Nvidia’s security team?

Nvidia’s longtime chief security officer, David Reber, left the company in August citing health reasons, shortly before CEO Jensen Huang resigned amid investigations into his extramarital relationships with a Megaspeed executive—a Singapore data‑center firm under U.S. scrutiny for allegedly funneling Nvidia chips to China—and two other employees. Reber, diagnosed with young‑onset Parkinson’s, was succeeded by Saša Zdjelar, a former ExxonMobil senior IT manager with brief stints at Salesforce and ReversingLabs. Neither Reber nor Zdjelar commented on whether the security team was aware of the government probe into Megaspeed or Huang’s affairs. While Nvidia’s top lawyer had been engaged with the Megaspeed inquiry for over a year, it remains unclear if security officials were briefed on the personal‑relationship risks that could be exploited by foreign intelligence services.

💡 The overlap of personal scandals and a federal export‑control probe creates a rare intelligence‑gathering window that could expose Nvidia’s most sensitive technologies to foreign espionage.

techcrunch.com · Nov 14

Jensen Huang’s departure blasts big hole in AI startup funding, VCs and…

Jensen Huang’s resignation as Nvidia CEO creates a void in the AI startup ecosystem, where the company has invested tens of billions annually and led 105 funding rounds this year. His departure removes a key champion who personally drove many deals, especially in neoclouds, inference providers, and open‑weight models. Investors fear a sharp decline in early‑stage capital, potentially altering valuations, deal flow, and competitive dynamics. Nvidia’s interim CEO, Colette Kress, is expected to adopt a more conservative investment stance, leaving a funding gap that rivals may or may not fill.

💡 The loss of Nvidia’s aggressive funding engine threatens to stall the rapid scaling of AI startups, potentially reshaping the competitive landscape and slowing the adoption of cutting‑edge AI technologies.

techcrunch.com · Nov 13

Jensen Huang didn’t show confidence in his successor, report says

Nvidia’s former CEO Jensen Huang publicly criticized his successor, CFO Colette Kress, calling her “a deer in the headlights” during a summer finance meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. Huang’s remark came amid discussions of billions‑dollar guarantees for data‑center operators unable to purchase Nvidia chips upfront. Kress, with 13 years at Nvidia, has questioned the company’s credit‑based deals and scaled back commitments to OpenAI’s Ohio data‑center project. Huang resigned after multiple affair scandals, and Nvidia is now seeking a permanent CEO.

💡 The incident exposes leadership discord at a tech titan, potentially unsettling investor confidence and affecting Nvidia’s strategic momentum in the AI hardware market.

techcrunch.com · Nov 13

Export-banned Nvidia chips are behind China’s most powerful AI models — uh-oh,…

A new study shows that China’s leading open‑weight AI models were trained on Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs, which the U.S. has banned from export to China. The research, led by former OpenAI researcher Will DePue, identified chip fingerprints in models from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax, and Ant Group. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang resigned amid allegations that his company’s executive, Alice Huang, facilitated smuggling of banned chips. U.S. export controls aim to protect American AI leadership, but the findings reveal widespread circumvention.

💡 The discovery exposes a critical loophole in U.S. tech‑export policy, undermining efforts to curb China’s AI advancement. It also signals potential legal and reputational risks for Nvidia and its partners, reshaping the global AI supply chain.

techcrunch.com · Nov 13

Israel’s VCs see opportunity for challengers in Nvidia’s turmoil

Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned, sparking concern in Israel, a key partner for the chipmaker. Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox in 2019 and plans for a multibillion‑dollar campus in northern Israel have anchored the company’s presence, employing about 6,000 locals. The succession debate centers on potential Israeli leaders, including Apple’s Johny Srouji and Nvidia’s Michael Kagan. Analysts warn that a new CEO may slow decision‑making, potentially opening space for rivals in the AI chip market.

💡 The leadership shift could alter Nvidia’s aggressive investment pace, reshaping the competitive landscape for AI hardware and software.