Musk and Sweeney tell Nvidia's board: save Jensen

The board met on Wednesday, 11 November, to discuss Huang's future. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the board was preparing to oust Huang. No decision has been announced. The Times of India and Outlook India, reporting on 12 November, each state that the board has not announced a decision. Nvidia's shares fell by approximately 8 percent in extended trading on 11 November, according to reports. Reuters has stated that it could not independently verify the affair allegations against Huang or the board's plans.

The statements

Sweeney posted on X on 12 November. His post reads in full: "Save Jensen. This would be an Apple firing Steve Jobs level of idiocy from NVIDIA's board if they did that, and a grievous harm to the United States of America. The dude truly is the visionary driver of the future of tech from the gaming GPU era to CUDA to AI supercomputers."

Musk's intervention took a different form. He replied to a post by ZeroHedge that read "Elon please hire Jensen". Musk's reply read: "That would be an honor." The exchange was a reply to a post on X, not a job offer. No role was named, no terms were stated, and no hiring process has been reported. Any reading of the reply as an offer of employment would go beyond what Musk wrote.

The comparison Sweeney drew was to the departure of Steve Jobs from Apple in 1985, a removal that is widely regarded as one of the most consequential board decisions in the history of the technology industry. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. The comparison frames Huang's possible removal as a decision of comparable scale, and it places the weight of the argument on Huang's record rather than on the circumstances that brought the board to consider his position.

Background

The board's deliberations follow a sequence of events that began on 8 November, when Huang acknowledged infidelity in a letter to Nvidia staff. The board opened an independent investigation, stating that it had "no reason to believe" that national security or Nvidia's secrets were compromised.

On 10 November, the independent directors retained Joon H. Kim, a former acting United States Attorney, to lead the investigation. Kim is a partner at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. The appointment placed the inquiry in the hands of an external investigator with experience in federal prosecution.

On 11 November, two reports advanced the story in the same day. The New York Times reported on the relationship with Kimberly Powell, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to oust Huang. The shares fell in extended trading after the reports, according to reports of the market reaction.

The reported reasons

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the board's deliberations concern two extramarital affairs. According to the Journal, one involved Alice Huang, a woman whom United States intelligence suspects of spying for China, and one involved Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare and a direct report of Huang.

These details are reported claims, not established facts. The board has not confirmed them, and Reuters has stated that it could not independently verify the affair allegations or the board's plans. The distinction matters, because the board's stated position is that it has no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia's secrets were compromised, while the reported reasons for its deliberations concern personal conduct and the relationships involved. Until the independent investigation led by Kim reports, or the board announces a decision, the reasons for the deliberations remain a matter of reporting rather than of record.

Why it matters

Huang has led Nvidia since co-founding the company in 1993. Under his leadership, the company moved from graphics processors for gaming into the parallel computing platform CUDA and then into artificial intelligence supercomputers, a transition that placed Nvidia at the centre of the current expansion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Sweeney's post traces exactly that arc, from the gaming GPU era through CUDA to AI supercomputers, and presents it as the reason the board should retain Huang.

The market reaction on 11 November gives a measure of how investors view the uncertainty. A fall of approximately 8 percent in extended trading followed the reports that the board was preparing to remove the chief executive. The decline reflects the assessment that Huang's leadership is closely tied to the company's valuation, and that a change at the top would introduce risk into a company whose products underpin much of the artificial intelligence industry.

The public interventions by Sweeney and Musk add a further dimension. Both are chief executives of major technology companies, and both chose to address the board directly through public posts rather than through private channels. Their statements do not bind the board, which is responsible to Nvidia's shareholders, but they signal how the wider industry would judge a decision to remove Huang.

What happens next

No decision has been announced, and the board has not set a public timetable. The independent investigation led by Joon H. Kim is ongoing. Any decision by the board, whether to retain Huang, to remove him, or to take another course, will be announced by the company, and the terms of any such decision will be stated in that announcement.

The reporting will continue as the investigation proceeds. Until then, the facts established on the record are limited: the board met on 11 November, the board has opened an independent investigation, the investigation is led by Kim, no decision has been announced, and two prominent technology chief executives have publicly urged the board to retain Huang.