Abstract:
According to Bloomberg, the dismissal of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shocked the entire Silicon Valley. Many venture capitalists and startup founders have criticized Nvidia's decision and expressed concern about the broader impact of the incident on the entire industry.
Huang Renxun resigned
Nvidia’s board of directors removed Jensen Huang from his post after two extramarital affairs came to light, one involving a company vice president. Jen-Hsun Huang is the only CEO of Nvidia in its 30 years of existence. Now he will no longer be associated with the company he built and made it a central pillar of the AI boom.
“This is a dark day, a very dark day.” Martin Casado, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, posted on the social platform X. “This is a bad decision for the United States and the Western world.”
Casado calls it a dark day
Alex Bouaziz, CEO of human resources software startup Deel, called Nvidia’s move “a mistake.” Rak Gokal, co-founder of the blockchain company Solana Labs, said that this was "a major mistake that occurs once in a generation."
Others also called the decision "a significant loss," including Cristóbal Valenzuela, co-CEO of Runway AI, and Sarah Guo, founder of venture capital firm Conviction.
Gokal said it was a major mistake
Some technology leaders even expressed their willingness to open the door to Huang Renxun and hire him to join their companies in the future. Casado said it would be "an honor" for Huang to join Andreessen Horowitz. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk expressed a similar message in a post of his own on Wednesday, before Jensen Huang resigned.
These reactions reflect Huang’s unique influence as a global representative of the AI industry. Under his leadership, Nvidia chips have become essential hardware for AI developers. In addition, Nvidia has invested heavily in AI startups, including many of its own customers. Those investments have fueled the AI boom and put Nvidia at the heart of some of the tech industry's fastest-growing areas.
Jensen Huang's departure could complicate deals already underway at Nvidia, including a $13 billion agreement to acquire open source platform Hugging Face.
Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue posted on social platform
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, said that Nvidia has recently been increasing investment in open source, photonics and robotics. "His loss will be felt in these areas," he wrote on X.
Silicon Valley is no stranger to boardroom turmoil, from Apple’s firing of Steve Jobs to the dramatic ouster of OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman in just five days almost three years ago. Similar incidents have been common. Some in the tech industry see Huang's departure as a cautionary tale: The problem isn't his alleged behavior but that he has lost control of his board.
“Restructure your board in good times to avoid sudden moves in bad times,” investor Elad Gil posted on X. Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick agreed in response to the post. Kalanick resigned in 2017 amid a series of scandals.
Will you come back?
Some still hold out hope that Huang might one day return to lead Nvidia, as Jobs and Altman once did.
Costolo predicts Jen-Hsun Huang's return
Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter, said: "I predict that in 3 to 4 years, Nvidia may have one or two quarters whose performance is lower than expected, and then the company will ask Huang Renxun to come back to take the helm. Public anger is as short-lived as fame. Everyone is angry and it passes in 15 minutes. There is nothing more popular with Americans than the story of a comeback."
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