"Let Jensen Huang Return": Elon Musk Takes the Lead, Over 20,000 People Sign the Petition

A "defense battle" centered around the founder is unfolding both inside and outside NVIDIA at the same time.

On November 13, Eastern Time, Elon Musk publicly confirmed on X that he would sign a petition demanding Jensen Huang be reinstated to his post.

Hours later, the traffic generated by this petition forced the relevant website to urgently expand its capacity.

Renowned investor Gavin Baker stated that the page has been "flooded" by massive signature requests.

Elon Musk Signs the Petition

The incident dates back to November 12.

NVIDIA's board of directors announced on the same day that it has accepted Jensen Huang's resignation from his positions as President, Chief Executive Officer and director, with Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress serving as interim CEO, while initiating the selection process for a long-term successor.

The cause of the incident stems from reports related to his personal relationships and a security investigation.

The company emphasized that no evidence shows that the company's confidential information or U.S. national security has been compromised.

It is reported that the company is selecting a suitable headhunting firm for the Chief Executive Officer position.

"No potential candidates have been formally approached yet, and it is too early to speculate on the successor."

However, the announcement did not calm the controversy.

According to internal information reviewed by WIRED, long before Jensen Huang's resignation, a senior NVIDIA engineer posted on the "Suggestion Box" section of the company's intranet, demanding that the board of directors listen to employees' opinions before making a decision.

At present, this post has accumulated more than 1,600 comments, most of which support Jensen Huang's return.

What truly brought this internal show of support to the forefront was Elon Musk's involvement.

On November 13, he replied to a post from Yun-Ta Tsai, a former core GPU engineer at NVIDIA and current Tesla engineer, on X, saying "There is currently a petition being circulated for signatures to demand Jensen Huang be reinstated, and I will sign it too."

Previously, some users proposed that Elon Musk rehire Jensen Huang, and his response was "That would be my honor."

According to Gavin Baker, the number of signature requests on the petition website was once so large that the server needed to be urgently upgraded.

Page data shows that the number of participants has exceeded 24,000 at present.

Market Value Evaporates by 3.8 Trillion Yuan in One Week

The reaction of the capital market is much calmer.

On Friday, NVIDIA closed at $162.85, down 2.01%, and once dipped to $158.39 during the session; it fell 12.7% cumulatively this week, with its market value evaporating by more than $570 billion (approximately RMB 3.82 trillion), marking its sixth consecutive weekly decline, hitting the longest consecutive losing streak record since 2012.

Even so, its market value of about $3.92 trillion still overtook Microsoft at the close, returning to second place in the U.S. stock market, second only to Apple's about $5.18 trillion.

Judging solely by its size, this chip giant has not been brought down; but from the perspective of market sentiment, almost all selling pressure comes from uncertainty.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, at least 13 analysts downgraded their "Buy" ratings this week, and the number of "Hold" ratings increased to 15, the highest number since 2023.

The team led by Truist analyst William Stein also downgraded NVIDIA's rating from "Buy" to "Hold".

William Stein believes that the departure of the CEO may damage NVIDIA's corporate culture that has been accumulated over a long period of time, and the risk is so great that it is "impossible to make a sufficiently confident prediction of revenue or profits."

New uncertainties are still on the rise.

It is reported that Jensen Huang has agreed to appear before Congress to testify under oath before Thanksgiving, and Representative Michael Mast, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading the coordination, and the hearing is expected to involve issues such as foreign affairs and intelligence.

The real test falls on November 17.

At that time, NVIDIA will release its first quarterly report after Jensen Huang's departure, and the market is extremely sensitive to revenue guidance and how the management will articulate its strategy.

During the window when Colette Kress is leading operations as interim CEO and the successor has not yet been finalized, whether the leadership transition will be smooth and whether the core strategy can be continued remain unanswered questions.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Gelonghui Finance Hotspot" (ID: glh_finance), written by Sun on the Hilltop, and published with authorization from 36Kr.