NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang stepped down on November 12, ending a 33-year leadership tenure. The board simultaneously announced that CFO Colette Kress would serve as interim CEO and launched a process to select a new CEO. After the resignation was announced, several bunches of white daisies and white candles appeared outside the Santa Clara, California headquarters, giving the atmosphere a memorial-service feel; inside the company, more than 97% of participants in a spontaneous employee vote hoped he would remain CEO. Since the allegations came to light, NVIDIA’s market value has evaporated by $1 trillion, about NT$31.5 trillion, and its stock has fallen 13% cumulatively from last Friday’s close through Thursday.
The suggestion box post received 1,600 comments, most asking him to come back.
Internal communications show that a longtime Nvidia engineer submitted a post in the company’s internal “suggestion box” before Jensen Huang’s resignation, urging the board to consider employee sentiment before taking any action. The post later accumulated more than 1,600 comments, many of which asked the board to find a way to bring Huang back. One anonymous comment read: “If you believe in this mission, bring the boss back.” Another read: “We are all human and make mistakes. Jensen Huang has done so many good things; he needs a second chance.”
An internal poll organized spontaneously by employees showed that more than 97% of participants want Jensen Huang to remain CEO, and several employees said they find this personnel change difficult to accept. An employee who has worked at Nvidia for several years said the desire for Jensen Huang to return is quite widespread within the company, and he worries that the company will ultimately pay a price for losing its founder at the helm; the board must bring him back: “Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen Huang.”
BREAKING: hundreds of NVIDIA employees have signed an internal letter demanding the reinstatement of Jensen Huang as CEO and the resignation of the board https://t.co/yEQMKAajh3
— zack (@zack_overflow) November 13, 2026
A company-wide email calls for clarification on transparency around departures.
Another employee sent an email to the entire company demanding transparency regarding Jensen Huang’s departure. In the letter, the employee wrote, “I support Jensen Huang,” and acknowledged that anyone can make mistakes, but could not accept that upholding fairness means having to distance oneself from a leader who means so much to the company. He also wrote in the letter: “If America fails the man who helped build its future, then this world does not deserve Jensen Huang.”
Within hours of the resignation announcement, about twenty employees posted on LinkedIn in support of Jensen Huang, with one saying their trust in his leadership was “unwavering”; WIRED said that during the same period it could not find any Nvidia employee posting in support of his resignation. Nvidia and new board chairman and investor Harvey Jones did not immediately respond to requests for comment; the employee who sent the letter could not be reached, and the engineer who initiated the suggestion-box post declined to comment.
White daisies and a glass jar candle beside the house number
On Thursday, media photographed several bouquets of flowers placed beneath the company sign outside Nvidia’s headquarters, and a man at the scene set down white candles in glass jars, drawing glances from a passing woman. Sing Tao Daily reported in more detail: on the left and right sides of the address plaque “2788,” two bouquets of white daisies stood upright, while a small bunch of white flowers lay horizontally on the ground between them, creating a solemn scene like a memorial. It is currently unclear whether the people who placed the flowers and candles were company employees, supporters, or passersby.
Despite the mournful atmosphere outside the headquarters, many employees wearing green Nvidia ID badges and backpacks still entered the office looking as usual that day. However, employees interviewed admitted that the atmosphere inside the company was “very sad,” and some were worried about the stock price and future development. Reactions online were more direct: one comment read, “They’re laying flowers in front of the Nvidia headquarters sign, making it look like a grave,” and another wrote, “It’s not Jensen Huang who died, it’s Nvidia.”
Flowers were laid outside Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara as CEO Jensen Huang resigned under a cloud of scandal. Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and is its fourth-largest investor with a stake of about 3.61%, will exit the board as well https://t.co/LE6IZBWwSL https://t.co/L5MJt7ijhK
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 12, 2026
The last few hours before resigning: frequently saying “whatever” and self-deprecatingly saying “I’m a piece of shit”
A report published by Bloomberg on November 13 disclosed the inside story of the resignation. People familiar with the matter said that after weeks of denying allegations of an extramarital affair and trying to keep his CEO position, Jensen Huang ultimately accepted the resignation late at night on November 11. He lost his former forceful attitude of controlling every aspect of the company and frequently responded to people around him with “Whatever” and “I don’t care.” People who had contact with him recently revealed that he was overcome with intense self-reproach and mocked himself with “I’m a piece of sh**.”
On November 8, Jensen Huang sent a letter to employees admitting to “being unfaithful to his wife” and said there was “no excuse.” On November 11, additional extramarital affair allegations emerged one after another, and the board held an all-night meeting before ultimately deciding to let him leave the company. His resignation came after a second report of an extramarital affair involving a direct subordinate,Forbes It was later reported that he had a relationship with another Nvidia employee. Since Sunday, Jensen Huang has not commented further on the affair.
Intelligence Investigation: Huang Le and Megaspeed’s Chip Flows
Beyond the affair scandal, Jensen Huang’s dealings with Alice Huang have also drawn intelligence scrutiny. CNN, citing multiple people familiar with the matter, reported that U.S. intelligence agencies are still investigating this Chinese businessperson’s relationship with the Chinese government, but the intelligence currently available is insufficient to prove that she was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security or engaged in espionage for Beijing. U.S. officials are divided: some officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA believe that directly calling her a Chinese spy may be an exaggeration; other Trump administration officials believe that given her close relationship with Jensen Huang and her influence in China’s business environment, it is hard to believe she has no connection to the government.
US Justice Department has not concluded Alice Huang was Chinese spy, Blanche says https://t.co/zDUfZ9hVkt
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 12, 2026
The FBI has been investigating the matter for at least a year. People familiar with the matter said intelligence agencies had intercepted communications that appeared to show someone using close contacts with Jensen Huang and Nvidia to pass information into Chinese intelligence channels, but there is currently no public evidence clearly pointing this information source to Huang Le, nor evidence proving that she knew she was passing intelligence to Beijing. Factors the FBI focused on included her transition from a reporter for Chinese state television to the business world, her rapid entry into financial and technology circles, and the influence she demonstrated in chip procurement.
The US intelligence community is still working to understand the relationship between a Chinese businesswoman who had an affair with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and the Chinese government, with multiple sources telling CNN that the intelligence collected on her to date does not prove that she was acting as a spy for Beijing. https://t.co/FZbzUrNyOP
— CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2026
The flow of chips is another point of controversy. Huang Le once worked at Megaspeed, a company registered in Singapore that is an important buyer of Nvidia chips. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce began investigating Megaspeed and affiliated companies in 2024, including whether restricted Nvidia chips were being diverted to China. Within the White House, some questioned why the Commerce Department did not add Megaspeed to the Entity List restricting trade during the investigation; a former Commerce Department official argued that the risk of chips flowing to China could stem from regulatory loopholes and companies’ own commercial interests, and does not necessarily require espionage to explain.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on November 12 that the Justice Department, he himself, and FBI Director Kash Patel have not yet concluded whether Huang Le is a spy, and that the relevant investigation is still ongoing. Trump also said that day that he did not know whether the United States had already confirmed that she is a spy. The Chinese government denies the spy allegations; Singapore said its investigation of Huang Le involves possible illegal conduct but not espionage. Nvidia’s board has launched an independent investigation to check whether Jensen Huang has become the target of a foreign intelligence operation; intelligence agencies have not yet determined that Nvidia trade secrets were stolen.
Who will take over?
The board appointed former Synopsys CEO Harvey Jones as chairman of the board; NVIDIA’s board is mainly composed of early investors and Jensen Huang’s longtime close associates. Kress is currently serving as interim CEO, and the company has simultaneously launched a search process for a new CEO. Jensen Huang is 63 and has led NVIDIA since its founding in 1993.
External shows of support have also been emerging. Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney, the developer of Fortnite, publicly supported Jensen Huang; Musk said it would be an honor if he could hire Jensen Huang to SpaceX. Whether chip export controls will be further tightened, and how the U.S. Congress and FBI investigations will proceed, are still ongoing.
For employees, the hardest thing to accept is the timing. Many had assumed that major personnel changes would come only after the board investigation reached a conclusion. Posts on the suggestion box had also called on the board to announce the investigation results to employees and formally seek employees’ views on “Jensen Huang continuing as CEO,” yet he left just as the investigation began. Internal business operations ran as usual this week, but Huang’s resignation shocked many employees.
Source: KOCPC Chinese