Elon Musk Leads Petition! Silicon Valley Supports Jensen Huang as Tens of Thousands Call for the Return of the Founder

The aftermath of Jensen Huang's resignation as CEO of NVIDIA is spreading rapidly in Silicon Valley, with tech industry leaders led by Musk actively intervening in an attempt to push this central figure back into his leadership role.

In the early hours of this morning Beijing time, Musk publicly confirmed on social media that he is signing a petition requesting Jensen Huang's reinstatement. Meanwhile, the website hosting the petition is under heavy server strain due to a surge in visits, and has already collected support from more than 14,000 people.

Public statements from key engineers who once worked at NVIDIA imply that if the leadership fails to handle this change properly, the company may face protest resignations from critical technical personnel, which would directly impact NVIDIA's business foundation.

From the perspective of the tech world, forcibly ousting a founder with industry-defining abilities often comes at a steep price. Several prominent investors and industry observers have already compared this event to the historic lessons of Apple and Uber, warning about the potential long-term strategic impact on the company.

Thousands Sign Petition, Crashing the Server

After Jensen Huang's resignation, a grassroots movement to "defend the founder" quickly erupted on social media, and Musk's involvement has undoubtedly injected massive attention into the campaign.

At 4:51 a.m. Beijing time, Musk made a clear statement in reply to Tesla senior engineer Yun-Ta Tsai: "There is a petition underway for Jensen Huang's reinstatement, and I'm signing it." This heavyweight endorsement caused the petition's popularity to surge instantly.

According to prominent investor Gavin Baker, the petition website calling for Jensen Huang's return is currently overwhelmed by signature requests, to the point that an urgent server upgrade is needed.

Page data shows that more than 12,000 people have already joined the initiative.

To show his support for Jensen Huang, Musk previously forwarded a classic quote from the movie “AIR” — "You will be remembered forever because some things are eternal" — and added the heartfelt note: "Jensen."

Key Talent Sounds the “Resignation Alarm”

For NVIDIA, which relies on cutting-edge technology, the potential turmoil among its core technical teams is even more worrying for the market than an executive reshuffle.

Yun-Ta Tsai, who worked on NVIDIA’s core GPU design team and is now a senior engineer at Tesla, publicly made a pointed call. He stated that if employees want Jensen Huang to return, they should act on the principle of “no NVIDIA without its employees” — by resigning, or at least taking a break.

Yun-Ta Tsai emphasized the current scarcity of hardware engineers. He noted that top GPU engineers are even more sought after in the market than machine learning engineers, and are extremely difficult to replace. Speaking to his peers, he said engineers should take their fate into their own hands because “it’s engineers who shape and deliver the company mission, not the board of directors.” As a former employee, he candidly admitted that Jensen Huang’s strategic vision profoundly shaped today’s NVIDIA, hinting that the founder’s departure could lead to a collapse in team cohesion.

Lessons from Silicon Valley: Irreplaceable Founders

Jensen Huang’s ousting has struck a nerve in Silicon Valley regarding “founder culture.” The market is starting to worry whether a tech giant, without its soul figure, will repeat the mistakes of history.

Renowned investor Naval Ravikant cited two of the most painful cases in tech history to express his doubts: Apple firing Steve Jobs and Uber pushing out Travis Kalanick.

Naval Ravikant sharply asked: “Haven’t we learned yet that you can’t simply replace a founder?” This view quickly resonated within Silicon Valley’s core circles, and Musk also responded concisely and forcefully under the post with two words: “True words.”