What Smart People In Business And Tech Are Saying About The Nvidia Board Potentially Ousting Jensen Huang

Ross Gerber said Huang's departure would be a disappointment for Nvidia shareholders but said the company could move forward without him.

"Looks like Jensen is done. What a disappointment. Sad day for Nvidia shareholders and looks like another tough day for the stock. Never would have guessed he'd go down this way," Gerber wrote in one of several posts on X on Wednesday.

"Jensen will be replaced and Nvidia is still Nvidia. That's business. He must go and Nvidia needs to focus on selling chips!" Gerber added.

Eric Wallerstein wrote on X on Wednesday that Huang's likely ousting could shake investor confidence in the broader AI trade, given Nvidia's role in financing the industry.

"Jensen has helped foster a complex web of circular financing relationships, and ultimately backstopped the AI trade, with Nvidia's balance sheet," Wallerstein said.

"Removing that Put, or even placing uncertainty on its availability, will cause investors to increase the risk premium on AI-related assets," Wallerstein added.

Ed Zitron said in a post on X that he questions what else Nvidia might be withholding from investors, pointing to the company's past regulatory troubles.

"Oh so NVIDIA knew about this affair already, huh? What else is this company not telling us?" Zitron wrote on Wednesday.

Zitron also cited two previous SEC cases involving Nvidia, one in 2002 over accounting practices and one in 2022 over disclosures related to cryptocurrency mining and gaming revenue.

Jason Calacanis said the company shouldn't be so quick to remove Huang.

"A much better solution for NVIDIA's board, shareholders, customers and employees (and America) would be to (a) finish their investigation and (b) make @JensenHuang the chairman if it comes to that," Calacanis wrote on X on Wednesday.

"China doesn't need NVIDIA's chips. America needs NVIDIA to win. Act accordingly," Calacanis added, alongside a screenshot of his new Nvidia share purchases.

Keith Urbahn, president of Javelin, a literary and creative agency that has repped prominent figures like James Comey and Tucker Carlson, said Wednesday in an X post that the situation was "a generational case study in how not to manage a crisis."

He outlined several lessons to take away from the ordeal, including: "Never let a CEO's personal crisis take precedence over the interests of the company and its shareholders."

"The board must speak with its own voice. It cannot outsource its institutional credibility to the CEO," he added.

Byrne Hobart, general partner at Anomaly Fund and founder of The Diff, a finance and tech newsletter, suggested ousting Huang could lead to new competition for Nvidia.

"On one hand, boards have to do what they have to do. On the other hand, he's a guy who's worth $150bn, knows everyone in hardware, named his company after the Latin word for "spite," and he lives in a state where you can't enforce noncompetes," he wrote in a post on X.

Anthony Pompliano, a crypto investor and entrepreneur, wrote on X: "Jensen's yet-to-be-launched Nvidia competitor is going to do numbers in the seed round."

Gene Munster, a tech analyst and managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said in an X post that Nvidia will go on, with or without its famous CEO.

"Remember: AI infrastructure customers will act in their best interest," he said. "That means they'll keep buying just as many $NVDA chips with or without Jensen."

He also said he guesses the stock will open on Thursday at $150, or about 20% lower than the close at the end of last week, but that he expects it to "quickly rally back."

Jim Cramer, who has interviewed Huang on several occasions, questioned how investors should value Nvidia if Huang were suddenly gone.

"As I said this morning, there is a bench. As Mike from Coreweave said, there is a company," Cramer said on X on Wednesday. "What is it worth when a key man is just erased?"

"Let me think about how sickening this is and then i will come back to you," Cramer added. "I want to throw up."

The founder of venture capital firm Khosla Ventures backed calls to treat the matter seriously while praising Huang's record.

Khosla wrote, "Agree with Ron!" on X in a response to VC Ron Conway's post.

Conway said the situation should be taken seriously, but urged people to remember Huang's "determination and vision," which he said laid the foundation for much of today's technology industry. He added that Huang's statements had shown "grace."

In a post on X, Niles predicted Huang could leave Nvidia but argued the company's product pipeline would sustain it for about two years.

"Given NYT article, I think Jensen is gone at $NVDA, potentially by tomorrow morning," the portfolio manager wrote, speculating that Nvidia's CFO could become interim CEO.

He said the stock could bottom relative to the semiconductor index after earnings, and that Nvidia had a "deep bench of direct reports."

Niles compared the situation to Apple after Steve Jobs took medical leave, saying that Nvidia's business could continue to perform for a time even without Huang. He also said the wider AI trade could face further forced selling.

Srinivasan said Huang should remain Nvidia's CEO.

"No. Bill Clinton did not resign. Jensen Huang shouldn't either," Srinivasan wrote, referring to the former US president. "And the Nvidia board shouldn't fire him. Particularly in the heat of the moment."

He urged Huang and Nvidia to "ride it out and ignore the journos," adding: "Clinton did. And then no one cared."

Srinivasan also reposted a tweet from Elon Musk saying he would be honored to hire Huang.

Srinivasan wrote: "If the Nvidia board is silly enough to do something rash, they will likely face immediate market consequences as all kinds of talent leaves to join Jensen at his next thing."

Tech megabull Dan Ives said that Huang's "days at Nvidia could be numbered" and that investors were now weighing questions around a successor, an interim strategy, board changes, and potential government investigations.

"Jensen has created a black eye moment for himself and Nvidia and now has created a spider web of complexity that Wall Street, Silicon Valley, DC, and the global tech ecosystem are trying to figure out what is next," he wrote.

Still, Ives wrote that Nvidia's leading-edge GPU technology and its entrenched role in the AI race would continue. He said Huang was "not replaceable," but argued the company could navigate the turmoil and remain a foundational part of the AI revolution.