"Bring Jensen Huang Back or We'll All Resign": NVIDIA Executives... Turns Out to Be a "Fake Document"

Document Misusing Senior Tech Executives' Names and Signatures Spreads
Namesake Says It Was Fake: "I Never Signed It"
Believed to Be Modeled on Protest Letter Over Altman's Firing at OpenAI

A document claiming that NVIDIA's senior technology executives had threatened to resign en masse while demanding the entire board's departure and the return of former CEO Jensen Huang spread on social media, but it turned out to be false.

On November 14 local time, U.S. technology media outlets reported that an image of a protest letter, purportedly sent to NVIDIA's board of directors, had recently circulated on X (formerly Twitter).

The letter bore the names of several senior NVIDIA technology executives, including Vice President Ian Buck, Chief Scientist Bill Dally, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Michael Kagan, and co-founder Chris Malachowsky.

The document claimed that the board's process for deciding Huang's departure had jeopardized the company's performance and business direction. It went on to demand that all current board members step down, that a new independent board be appointed, and that former CEO Huang be reinstated.

A document claiming that Nvidia executives threatened to resign en masse while calling for the return of former CEO Jensen Huang turned out to be fake. Yonhap News Agency.

It also said that if the demands were not met, the signatories would leave NVIDIA and join the Terafab project, a space venture being pursued by Elon Musk. The letter was accompanied by claims that hundreds of employees had joined them.

However, Brian Catanzaro, NVIDIA's vice president of applied deep learning research, whose name appeared in the document, posted on X on November 13, saying the letter was clearly fake. He emphasized, "I did not sign that document, and even if it were real, I would not have signed it." He added, "I am saddened by Huang's departure, but I trust the board's decision and support interim CEO Colette Kress."

The document's content and structure also fueled suspicions that it was forged. The letter was found to closely match the wording and structure of a protest letter that more than 700 OpenAI employees sent to the board in November 2023, when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was dismissed. In effect, the claim was that the letter had been altered by replacing "OpenAI" with "NVIDIA," "Sam Altman" with "Jensen Huang," and "Microsoft" with "Elon Musk."

Still, reports say that there have been voices within NVIDIA calling for Huang's return. U.S. technology publication WIRED reported that a post by a longtime engineer on the company's internal suggestion board, published before Huang announced his resignation, drew more than 1,600 comments, many of them supporting his return. Some employees also emailed the entire company, calling for a transparent explanation of the process that led to Huang's departure.

Earlier, on November 12, NVIDIA's board announced that Huang had stepped down immediately as CEO and a board member. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kress will serve as interim CEO until a successor is selected, and the board has begun the process of appointing one.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.