Nvidia Staff Urge Board to Reconsider After Jensen Huang's Exit

By Coinvote

Published November 15, 2026 - 15:29 UTC | 4 mins read

Nvidia Staff Urge Board to Reconsider After Jensen Huang's Exit

Staff at Nvidia are pressing directors to return Jensen Huang to the top job, which he left only days ago, and Elon Musk and Changpeng Zhao have voiced support for him. Congressional deadlines, a shareholder suit and an earnings report are close.

Employees ask the board to weigh their views

Some Nvidia employees are urging the board to reverse course following Jensen Huang's departure from the chief executive role. Decrypt summarised a report by Wired, which reviewed internal correspondence at the chip maker.

The centrepiece is a post in an internal suggestion box, written by a longtime engineer before the resignation. It asked directors to consider staff sentiment before acting. According to Decrypt, it has attracted more than 1,600 comments, and several urge directors to look for a route to restoring Huang to the job.

The post further requested that directors tell staff what their investigation found and formally seek opinions on whether Huang should stay as CEO. One employee sent a companywide email demanding transparency about the exit and declared support for Huang.

How the resignation unfolded

Huang resigned on Thursday from three roles: president, CEO and director. According to Decrypt, he had spent 33 years at the company, which he co-founded. Finance chief Colette Kress is acting as interim CEO, and Harvey Jones, previously chief executive of Synopsys, is the first person to chair the board. Nvidia offered no explanation for the move.

On Sunday, Huang told staff he was unfaithful to his wife, naming no one. Decrypt added that on Wednesday the New York Times reported a relationship between Huang and Kimberly Powell, a health care vice president at Nvidia who answered directly to him. Powell has not commented. Reuters, relying on two people with knowledge of the matter, reported that Huang was also intimately involved with another Nvidia staff member, who is unnamed in its report.

Protos covered the same events in a live report, saying Nvidia announced the change following reported affairs involving a Chinese intelligence agent and one of Huang's direct reports.

The Alice Huang question

Much of the scrutiny centres on Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, who led Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer. In October, the Times reported that surveillance of her indicated a close relationship with Nvidia's chief executive. The Times said U.S. officials judged her to be an asset of Chinese intelligence. China has rejected the allegation.

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said police examined her over possible false declarations tied to the company's server purchases, not over espionage. It said officers found too little evidence of offences, yet concluded she knowingly gave them inaccurate information to downplay her role. She received a stern warning, left Singapore in February and is barred from returning. Probes into Megaspeed and six other individuals are continuing.

Reuters reported that Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department had yet to decide whether she was a spy, with the FBI looking into the reports.

Key dates and figures

The reported numbers and deadlines give a sense of how quickly pressure is building.

More than 1,600 comments on the internal suggestion-box post, per Wired as relayed by Decrypt.
About two dozen employee LinkedIn posts supported Huang after his departure, while Wired said it found none backing the exit.
December 1: congressional committees asked Huang for a closed-door interview.
December 3: he has been asked to testify at a Senate hearing on Nvidia's chip exports to China.
Tuesday: Nvidia reports quarterly earnings, the first under Kress.

Where the outlets agree and differ

The accounts diverge on cause and on the push to bring Huang back. Protos links the resignation directly to the reported affairs. Decrypt says Nvidia gave no reason, so the connection rests on press reporting about the relationships and not on a company statement.

Descriptions of Alice Huang also differ. Protos calls her a reported intelligence agent for China. Decrypt keeps that claim attributed to U.S. officials cited by the Times, notes China's denial and adds Singapore's statement that she was not investigated for espionage.

On the reinstatement effort, The Defiant reported that Musk backs an independent open letter calling for Huang's return. Its summary warns that nobody has verified the identities of those who signed, and it adds that the board has announced no reversal. Decrypt notes Musk stating that hiring Huang would be an honor but does not mention the letter, so the two outlets describe different expressions of support.

Why the reaction reaches the crypto world

Nvidia's leadership matters to crypto readers because of the company's role as a major supplier of the GPUs used in computing-heavy industries. Decrypt noted that Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao called the board's decision a mistake, which shows how far the debate has spread beyond Nvidia's staff.

Protos reported that the Commerce Department is reportedly close to finalising a rule meant to limit China's remote access to GPU clusters. It also reported that Commerce had earlier halted an investigation into Megaspeed and referred it to the Justice Department. Both points were reported with qualifiers and do not appear in the other outlets' accounts.

What to watch next

The first open question is whether the board responds to staff calls or the open letter. The Defiant says the board has not announced any reversal, and Nvidia and Jones did not immediately respond to Wired.

The second is how Kress frames the company on Tuesday's earnings report. The third is whether Huang's December appearances in Washington bring new detail about Nvidia's China exports. A proposed shareholder class action also targets him and Nvidia over his alleged ties to Alice Huang. Whether any of these changes the board's position is unknown.

FAQ

Has Nvidia's board agreed to bring Jensen Huang back?

No. The Defiant reports that the board has announced no reversal. Decrypt says Nvidia and its new chair, Harvey Jones, did not immediately respond to Wired.

Why did Jensen Huang resign as Nvidia CEO?

Nvidia did not give a reason, according to Decrypt. Protos ties the exit to reported relationships with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative and a subordinate, while Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife.

Who is running Nvidia now?

Chief financial officer Colette Kress is interim CEO, Decrypt reported. Harvey Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive, became the board's first chair.