On Thursday, November 12, the news of Jensen Huang’s resignation from his position as CEO of NVIDIA sent shockwaves across the globe, resulting in a dramatic drop in the company’s stock prices. Prior to his resignation, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, expressed his admiration for Huang on social media, stating that should he have the opportunity to hire Huang, it would be an honor. Experts in the field of artificial intelligence have speculated that a collaboration between Musk and Huang could form a powerful partnership.
The day before Huang’s resignation, the financial blog Zerohedge took to the social media platform X to appeal directly to Musk: “Elon, please hire Jensen Huang.”
Musk replied, “That would be my honor,” igniting excitement among fans. One fan even suggested, “Just imagine Elon hiring Huang to lead the Terafab project.” Another chimed in, saying, “That would truly be the most fascinating ending!”
Elon Musk is currently working on establishing a Terafab chip factory in Grimes County, Texas. This ambitious project is a joint venture involving Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX along with Intel, boasting an initial investment exceeding $15 billion. Last month, Musk had confidently stated that despite not yet having a deep understanding of chip manufacturing, he was committed to finding ways to create chips “better than anyone else.”
Brivael Le Pogam, CEO and CTO of Argil AI, took to the X platform to share his own predictions regarding Musk’s willingness to bring Huang on board for the Terafab project. According to Le Pogam, Terafab represents an opportunity specifically designed for Huang. Musk envisions this endeavor as potentially the largest chip manufacturing facility in history, aiming to produce chips capable of delivering one exaflop of computing power annually, with the entire process from design to packaging integrated within a single factory.
However, Le Pogam pointed out that Terafab currently faces the daunting challenge of establishing an industry system that has taken decades for others to build, all within just a few years. He noted that there is only one person on the planet who truly comprehends every aspect of this technological stack. If Musk and Huang were to collaborate, they could accelerate the project’s development at an almost unprecedented pace.
“Musk brings speed, capital, and a willingness to take risks; Huang offers three decades of comprehensive mastery over the entire tech ecosystem, spanning chip architecture, software, customer relations, and supply chain management. Musk’s speed in constructing factories is unmatched, and Huang knows exactly what these factories need. They are the only duo that can condense a decade of development into a mere three years,” Le Pogam articulated.
Moreover, Le Pogam forecasts that Musk will eventually acquire NVIDIA. He explained that without Huang, NVIDIA could fall into the same trap as many companies that lose their founders; the company risks becoming mired in routine operational management, striving to maintain profit margins while slowly losing its competitive edge due to customers increasingly developing their own chips. If this trend continues, NVIDIA may become a target for acquisition.
Le Pogam further speculated that once Musk acquires NVIDIA, Huang could once again take the helm of its chip business. While this scenario may sound outrageous, he referenced the history of Steve Jobs, who was ousted from Apple and returned later when the company acquired NeXT.
The pressure on Huang, who had led NVIDIA for 33 years, intensified dramatically following his acknowledgment of an extramarital affair and his entanglement in a scandal involving a Chinese spy. Several members of the U.S. Congress called for his resignation. On Wednesday evening, NVIDIA’s board convened to deliberate whether to remove Huang from his position, ultimately announcing on Thursday that he would step down. In the wake of this news, NVIDIA’s stock plummeted by over 10% upon opening, leading the AI chip giant to experience a staggering loss of $2.1 trillion in market value since its peak on October 6.
Prominent CEOs and leaders in the tech industry have spoken out in support of Huang’s continued leadership at NVIDIA.
Just hours after the announcement of Huang’s resignation, Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, expressed on X, “NVIDIA’s decision to let Jensen go is a mistake.”
Clément Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, also took to X to lament the situation, writing, “This is all terrible, I really wish this had never happened. It’s truly a sad day!”
Earlier this summer, NVIDIA was poised to acquire Hugging Face, a company that hosts thousands of open-source AI models and datasets. Currently, this deal is under review by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, was among the first to publicly defend Huang. Just days after Huang acknowledged his affair, Ackman tweeted support on X, stating, “We should all support him and his family.”
On another front, due to the implications of Huang’s extramarital affair involving suspicions of espionage linked to China, bipartisan members of Congress have expressed intent to launch an investigation. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader and Democratic senator, stated that Huang’s resignation does not absolve either him or NVIDIA from the duty to provide explanations to Congress.
Schumer wrote on X, “Even though Huang has resigned, Congress must still demand explanations from him and other relevant personnel at NVIDIA regarding how they placed U.S. national security at risk.”