Nvidia Jensen Huang exit after affairs: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Tim Sweeney and others react

Jensen Huang has been the talk of the town after stepping down as president and CEO of Nvidia. He also resigned his seat on the company’s board. Huang recently admitted to having an extramarital affair. The controversy took a dramatic turn when reports emerged that U.S. intelligence had circulated a memo alleging that Alice Huang, a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, is an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security who may have been passing information to Beijing. The two Huangs are not related, and Beijing has rejected the spying allegations. The New York Times then reported that Huang had a second affair with Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia vice president who reports to him. A third affair has also recently been reported, but its details have not yet been made public. Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang had resigned, and Silicon Valley has reacted in different ways. Here’s what others across the tech industry think about the situation.

Jensen Huang’s resignation: How political and technology leaders reacted

Jensen Huang’s exit has attracted reactions well beyond Nvidia. Some of the most influential figures in politics and technology publicly discussed what could be next for Nvidia and Huang.

Addressing the situation on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump suggested that Tim Cook, the executive chairman of Apple, could replace Huang. He wrote: 'Now that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - Tim Cook of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!'

While the extramarital affair situation was unfolding, a user posted on X asking Elon Musk to hire Huang. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO responded positively, saying it would 'be an honor.' Musk also replied to a post that said, 'You’d think we’d have learned from Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick that one does not just simply replace the founder' with, 'True words.'

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney described the development as a major loss for the technology industry: 'A sad day for NVIDIA, developers, America, and all humanity. Jensen founded and ran one of the few companies to reach a massive scale while driving massive continued innovation and ubiquity, while others fell into the trap of ever-increasing extraction.'

Ahead of Huang’s resignation, Sweeney had also posted about how Huang 'saved' a GDC 2015 presentation by dropping off a graphics card. He added: 'The dude truly is the visionary driver of the future of tech from the gaming GPU era to CUDA to AI supercomputers.'

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, speaking the night before the resignation was announced, said: 'China wants Jensen out, so I want him in.'

Lex Fridman, host of the Lex Fridman Podcast, also expressed shock. Describing the kindness, humility and care Huang shows to everyone around him, Fridman said: 'I’m in shock frankly at all of this, including the mass hysteria around it. I love America, and I think NVIDIA letting Jensen go is terrible for America. I stand with Jensen.'

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also criticised the decision: 'It’s a mistake for Nvidia to let Jensen resign.'

Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, thanked Huang for '33 years of bold leadership.' He wrote: 'You built a small startup into America’s most valuable company, with relentless improvement. Your grit and perseverance should always be remembered. Your personal generosity with time and advice to founders like me has secured a bright future for America and AI.'

Clément Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, which Nvidia recently acquired for almost $13 billion, described the situation as deeply disappointing: 'This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened. It’s a really sad day! But I want to make one thing clear: we’ll keep fighting for open-source AI, harder than ever. This is too important to slow down now. Let’s go!'

Also read: 'Bring back the boss': Nvidia employees want Jensen Huang back despite multiple affair allegations

Jensen Huang exit: Founders and industry leaders question the decision

Several other prominent technology founders and executives questioned whether Huang’s departure was justified. They argued that personal allegations should not automatically erase decades of professional achievements.

Jason Calacanis, host of the All-In Podcast, reposted Trump’s post, tagging Tim Cook and telling him to 'Keep the seat warm' for Huang while 'the investigation is sorted out.' He added that 'America needs you, Mr Cook.' The night before, he had said that Nvidia shareholders should 'decide Jensen’s fate after the investigation is complete — not the press or online mobs.'

David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO of 37signals and creator of the Omarchy Linux distribution, called the development 'What a waste.' Hours earlier, he had posted: 'NVIDIA would be wrong to fire Jensen. His marital indiscretions are between him, his wife, and a reprimand from the board. Have some proportionality.'

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder and CEO of Automattic, seemed to draw on his own experience. He briefly lost his position as CEO in September. He reposted an X post that read: 'Founder advice: If you don’t have a coup attempt every few years, you’re not hiring strong enough leaders.' Mullenweg added: 'Just putting this back out there, for no reason whatsoever.'

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw and an OpenAI employee, suggested that the circumstances surrounding Huang’s departure could involve something more serious than the reported allegations. Steinberger wrote: 'If that Spy’s goal was to destabilize one of the most successful American companies, they achieved their goal. Ousting Jensen feels rushed and not right.' Sweeney replied: 'I agree.'

Also read: Can Tim Cook really replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia CEO? Here is what an Apple expert said

How Nvidia employees reacted to Jensen Huang’s resignation

According to reports, the first reaction of current and former Nvidia employees was to let the company’s board investigate the matter rather than remove its longtime leader.

Nvidia has a large workforce, many of whom have developed a strong sense of loyalty to the company and its founder. Some describe the workplace culture as having 'green in your blood,' being 'green-pilled' or belonging to 'team green,' referring to Nvidia’s signature colour.

Employees have also credited Huang with guiding the company through difficult periods over 33 years, keeping layoffs relatively rare and maintaining a workplace with limited bureaucracy. One employee described the sudden change in perception of Huang as a shift from superhero to controversy’s centre within just days: 'In just three days we went from superhero cape to ‘Oops, I forgot my pants,’ and nobody’s quite sure how to swallow that.'

Some former employees also questioned whether the reported personal relationships alone could explain such a dramatic leadership change, and one suggested something more serious might have been involved. A Blind survey of Nvidia employees found 88 per cent opposed his departure. Feel free to check out our detailed article on what Jensen Huang’s exit means for Nvidia and its competitors.