From the moment the Jensen Huang situation began to escalate until his departure as CEO, less than a week passed.
The global technology industry was shaken, and Asian American communities across the United States felt not only bewilderment but also an indescribable sense of suppression.
Starting November 13, a link began circulating in multiple WeChat groups of Chinese Americans: standwithjensen.com. Group administrators repeatedly forwarded it, urging members to sign the petition calling on NVIDIA (NVDA)'s board of directors to bring Huang back.
As of 9 PM Eastern Time on November 14, the number of signatures had approached 130,000 and was still growing rapidly.
"Forward a public petition letter supporting Jensen, StandwithJensen. Everyone is welcome to read, share, and consider signing. This matter is not only about the future of AI, but also about how Asian Americans are viewed and treated in society," a Chinese community group administrator wrote in a mobilization message in the WeChat group.
Most group members were Chinese elites who had worked on Wall Street for years. They were all too familiar with that invisible ceiling: performance can be the best, yet one's name is always missing from promotion lists; one can be the most diligent, yet is often labeled as "quiet" or "lacking leadership." In the American workplace, this ceiling is called the "bamboo ceiling" — seemingly transparent, yet as solid as iron.
Jensen Huang was the exception. He was sent to the United States at age 9 and accidentally ended up at a reform school in Kentucky, where one of his daily tasks was cleaning toilets. As a teenager, he washed dishes and served plates at a Denny's restaurant; at age 30, he and two partners conceived NVIDIA (NVDA) in a booth at a Denny's. Over the following 33 years, he transformed a graphics card company that nearly went bankrupt several times into the highest market-cap company in the world.
For many Chinese Americans, that black leather jacket is not just one person's signature — it is a form of proof: Asian Americans can not only be good engineers, but can also stand at the center of the stage and lead an era.
That is precisely why his sudden departure stung so deeply.
Questioning the Board's "Due Diligence" Process
A partner at a top-tier American law firm told Tencent Finance that if more heavyweights, especially current NVIDIA (NVDA) employees and shareholders, join the petition, the board will face considerable moral and public opinion pressure, which would also create a favorable atmosphere for Huang's return to the company.
On November 12, NVIDIA (NVDA) announced Huang's resignation, and standwithjensen.com went live almost simultaneously. The website states that the initiators are current and former employees and shareholders of NVIDIA (NVDA), unrelated to the company officially.
The open letter's focus is "procedural fairness": the initiators believe that mere "suspicion" or "association" is not sufficient to end Huang's leadership; holding the company for 33 years does not mean exemption from accountability, but accountability requires evidence, a fair hearing, and a decision that can withstand scrutiny.
In the past two days, the number of signatures has climbed rapidly, and Musk also stated on X that he had signed.
"This petition action is not about 'defending' Jensen Huang. He does have behavioral issues, but the key problem is that the board's process of deciding to have Huang step down was quite hasty — there was actually no due diligence, the entire process was not completed, and there was no formal conclusive evidence," said one signatory, an executive at an American financial institution, to Tencent Finance.
In 2018, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned for violating the company's "no supervisor-subordinate dating" policy due to a relationship with a subordinate. But multiple lawyers interviewed by Tencent Finance believe this precedent cannot be simply applied to Huang. Krzanich was a typical professional manager who rose from engineer to CEO, and Intel was already a mature giant with complete governance — his departure was merely a "change of command." Huang is different. Almost every key transformation of NVIDIA (NVDA), from CUDA to data centers to AI, came from his judgment and persistence.
"NVIDIA (NVDA) has no succession plan. Huang alone basically holds up half the sky. If the board were to push him out just because of some misconduct, that would be inappropriate," the executive said. "Of course, this matter also involves the so-called 'national security' issue, which makes it even more complex."
However dazzling the founder's halo, it is difficult to offset national security concerns. The aforementioned law firm partner also told Tencent Finance that whether Huang can return to NVIDIA (NVDA) ultimately depends on the investigation conclusions of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice: if it is confirmed that Alice Huang is indeed an intelligence operative, or if problems are found in the flow of NVIDIA (NVDA) secrets or chips, then no matter how many signatures there are, the board will likely find it difficult to open the door for his return.
Asian American Community Mobilization
The flawed part is that, because the website lacks real-name verification, the authenticity of signatures is difficult to determine. NVIDIA (NVDA) Vice President Bryan Catanzaro publicly clarified that he never signed and said his name was used by someone else.
The aforementioned law firm partner told Tencent Finance: "I took a look at the current online petition. Its authenticity and seriousness are insufficient. Some signatures appear to have been filled in randomly."
Even so, there are still many people who sincerely hope for Huang's return, with Chinese and Asian American groups particularly active. Multiple people who participated in the petition told Tencent Finance that Huang's bold and decisive style overturned the outside world's stereotypical image of Asian Americans as "docile, obedient, and insufficiently aggressive in the workplace."
Dave Lu, founder of an anti-discrimination organization and an investor, described to CNBC that the entire community felt "heartbroken." He believes the U.S. government has so far not publicly produced evidence of espionage, and similar "red scares" repeatedly deepen the prejudice that "Asian Americans are untrustworthy and disloyal," also harming Asian American women portrayed in internet jokes as protagonists of "honey traps."
Deeper unease stems from historical shadows. Many still remember the years when the Department of Justice implemented the "China Initiative": many Chinese Americans were prosecuted, ultimately either having charges dropped or with no espionage evidence ever produced, yet those involved had already paid a heavy price. Frank Yang, head of the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told The New York Times bluntly that society already harbors deep suspicion of Chinese Americans, and what is least needed at this moment is another person of Chinese background being embroiled in such a controversy.
Hard to Imagine NVIDIA Without Jensen Huang
Among those who signed the petition, many are also NVIDIA (NVDA) shareholders.
"I just signed as an NVIDIA (NVDA) shareholder calling for Jensen to return to the CEO position. If you hold NVIDIA (NVDA) shares and hope the stock price rebounds, go sign too and let Jensen come back," veteran individual investor Henry urged on social media.
Henry was born in China and went abroad to study and work in his teens. "Although my purchase price was far below $100, the recent sharp drop in NVIDIA (NVDA) shares has caused me heavy losses. Even so, I still will not sell." In his view, first, NVIDIA (NVDA)'s valuation is already "unbelievably low," with the current valuation implying only 7% profit growth next year while expectations are as high as 70%; second, it is out of personal sentiment and belief in Huang.
The outside world often describes NVIDIA (NVDA)'s management structure as "one king, sixty direct reports": major decisions are almost all made by Huang, and there has never been a clear succession pipeline. Technical successors include GPU engineering head Jonah Alben and "father of CUDA" Ian Buck, but the industry believes neither can replicate Huang's control over the supply chain. SemiAnalysis believes Buck has the highest chance, followed by CFO Colette Kress; among external candidates, Apple chip head Johny Srouji has been mentioned.
The tricky part is that, according to SemiAnalysis citing an executive, "Ian would rather die than succeed Jensen... no one would truly want that job."
NVIDIA (NVDA) is what it is today precisely because Huang dared to make big bets. When CUDA lost money for years in a row, it was he who overcame all objections and bet on it. With a professional manager in charge, it would probably be difficult to push long-term projects such as Omniverse and autonomous driving that currently generate "zero revenue."
SemiAnalysis believes that, referencing Apple after Steve Jobs, a professional manager taking over would make the company more conservative and rely on buybacks to reward shareholders, and NVIDIA (NVDA) could also become an "ordinary company."
More critically, customers have always trusted Huang as a person. Chip quotas and guarantees for new cloud vendors largely depend on his personal credibility. NVIDIA (NVDA)'s off-balance-sheet guarantees have reached $530 billion, with equity investments of $99 billion. Once "Huang's backstop" is lost, the new cloud ecosystem could shrink significantly.
NVIDIA (NVDA)'s bargaining power over the supply chain could also weaken. In the past, memory and wafer capacity were mostly negotiated face-to-face between Huang and various CEOs. According to SemiAnalysis estimates, SK Hynix's HBM4 quote to NVIDIA (NVDA) is more than 10% lower than to other customers; after Huang's departure, more than 70% of capacity could shift to non-NVIDIA (NVDA) chips by 2028.
The open-source field would also be affected. NVIDIA (NVDA)'s open-source cooperation with Chinese AI labs has long been an "open secret," and Western projects such as SGLang and vLLM have benefited from it. After Huang's departure, Chinese labs may no longer publicly optimize software for Blackwell, which would be a blow to startups.
However, whether these are enough to bring Huang back remains to be seen. For the board, 90,000 signatures represent public opinion and emotion, but what they need to weigh more is regulatory risk, congressional pressure, and shareholder litigation. Before the investigation conclusions are released, the board is more likely to choose to wait rather than rush to bring Huang back.
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