Tech leaders react to Jensen Huang's ouster from NVIDIA
What's the story
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has stepped down from his position following allegations of two affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy and another with a direct report. Hours after the announcement of his resignation, Reuters revealed that he also had an "intimate relationship" with another NVIDIA employee. Huang's resignation has drawn a mixed bag of reactions from the tech community.
Varied responses
Some industry leaders call it a 'waste'
Some industry leaders have called the decision a "waste" and a sad day for "all humanity." They believe that his ouster was hasty, possibly an overreaction to sensational news stories about his personal life.
Others have taken a more neutral stance, focusing on Huang's accomplishments during his tenure at NVIDIA.
Support from Musk
Elon Musk expresses support for Huang
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also expressed his support for Huang. In response to an X user, he said it would "be an honor" to hire him.
He also agreed with a post saying "You'd think we'd have learned from Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick that one does not just simply replace the founder..." by replying with "True words."
Sweeney's statement
Epic Games' Tim Sweeney calls it a 'sad day'
Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, also weighed in on Huang's resignation. He said today is "A sad day for NVIDIA, developers, America, and all humanity."
He praised Huang for founding and running one of the few companies to reach massive scale while driving continued innovation.
"The dude truly is the visionary driver of the future of tech from the gaming GPU era to CUDA to AI supercomputers," Sweeney said.
Support from Luckey
Other prominent figures also weighed in
Anduril founder Palmer Luckey also expressed his support for Huang before his resignation was announced. He said, "China wants Jensen out, so I want him in."
Automattic co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg shared a post after his brief September ouster as CEO: "Founder advice: If you don't have a coup attempt every few years, you're not hiring strong enough leaders."
Hansson's view
Hugging Face CEO shares thoughts on situation
David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO of 37signals and creator of the Omarchy Linux distribution, also weighed in on Huang's resignation.
He said, "NVIDIA would be wrong to fire Jensen. His marital indiscretions are between him, his wife, and a reprimand from the board."
Clement Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face (which NVIDIA recently acquired for almost $13 billion), said, "This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened."