Tech leaders criticize Jensen Huang’s departure from Nvidia

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Huang had “done a fantastic job” and suggested Apple CEO Tim Cook take his place, calling Cook “a Legend” who could replace “a Legend.” Musk said it would “be an honor” to hire Huang and agreed with an X post arguing that founders are difficult to replace.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it “a sad day for NVIDIA, developers, America, and all humanity,” praising Huang for building a company that combined scale with continued innovation. Before the departure was announced, Sweeney also recalled Huang bringing a graphics card to a 2015 Game Developers Conference presentation and described him as a visionary who led Nvidia from gaming GPUs to CUDA and AI supercomputers.

Other executives objected to the decision or questioned its timing. Changpeng Zhao, former Binance CEO, called it “a mistake for Nvidia to let Jensen resign.” David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals said Huang’s marital indiscretions were a matter between him, his wife and the board, and argued that Nvidia should not fire him. OpenClaw creator and OpenAI employee Peter Steinberger said the departure felt “rushed and not right”; Sweeney replied, “I agree.”

Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue called the episode “a really sad day” and said the company would continue its work on open-source AI. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas thanked Huang for “33 years of bold leadership.” Lex Fridman said he was “in shock” and opposed Nvidia letting Huang go. All-In Podcast host Jason Calacanis urged shareholders to wait for an investigation to conclude before deciding Huang’s fate. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey had voiced support before the announcement, saying: “China wants Jensen out, so I want him in.”