Elon Musk Takes Lead in Signing Petition as Silicon Valley Firmly Backs Jensen Huang, Tens of Thousands Call for "Founders to Return"

Author: Ye Zhen, Wallstreetcn

The aftershocks of Jensen Huang stepping down as NVIDIA CEO are spreading rapidly across Silicon Valley, with leading figures in the tech industry, represented by Musk, actively intervening to urge this soul figure to take the helm again.

In the early hours of Beijing time today, Musk publicly confirmed on social media that he is signing a petition requesting Jensen Huang's reinstatement. Meanwhile, the website hosting the petition (standwithjensen.com) is facing server strain due to a surge in traffic, having already collected over 14,000 signatures of support.

A core engineer who previously worked at NVIDIA has made a public statement warning that if top management fails to handle this transition properly, the company could face a resignation protest from key technical staff, which would directly impact NVIDIA's business foundation.

In the view of the tech industry, forcibly sidelining a founder capable of defining the industry often comes with a heavy price tag. Several prominent investors and industry analysts have compared this incident to historical lessons from Apple and Uber, warning of the potential blow to the company's long-term strategy.

Tens of Thousands in Petition Overwhelm Servers

After Jensen Huang's departure, a grassroots "save the founder" movement quickly erupted on social media, and Musk's involvement undoubtedly injected massive traffic into the campaign.

At 4:51 a.m. Beijing time, Musk clearly stated while replying to Tesla senior engineer Yun-Ta Tsai: "A petition asking for Jensen Huang's reinstatement is underway, and I am also signing." This high-profile public endorsement instantly sent the petition's popularity soaring.

According to prominent investor Gavin Baker, the petition website calling for Jensen Huang's return is currently being overwhelmed by a massive volume of signature requests, reaching the point where urgent server upgrades are needed.

Page data shows that over 12,000 people have participated in this joint initiative.

To express his support for Jensen Huang, Musk also previously retweeted a classic line from the movie AIR: "You will be remembered forever, because some things are eternal," attaching the name Jensen with deep emotion.

Core Talent Sounds Resignation Alarm

For NVIDIA, which relies on cutting-edge technology, what worries the market more than executive turnover is the potential instability within the foundational engineering teams.

Yun-Ta Tsai, who formerly worked in NVIDIA's core GPU design team and is now a senior engineer at Tesla, has issued a highly pointed appeal. He pointed out that if employees want Huang to return, they should put into action the philosophy of "without employees, there is no NVIDIA" by resigning and taking a break first.

Yun-Ta Tsai emphasized the current scarcity of hardware engineers. He noted that top-tier GPU engineers are even more in demand in the market than machine learning engineers and are extremely difficult to replace. He called out his peers, stating that engineers should take control of their own destinies because "it is engineers, not the board of directors, who shape and fulfill the company's mission." As a former employee, he admitted that Huang's strategic vision profoundly shaped today's NVIDIA, hinting that the founder's departure could lead to a collapse in team cohesion.

Silicon Valley's Lessons from History: Irreplaceable Founders

Huang's departure precisely struck the most sensitive nerve regarding "founder culture" in Silicon Valley. The market is beginning to worry whether losing its soul figure will cause this tech giant to repeat historical mistakes.

Well-known investor Naval Ravikant cited two of the most infamous painful cases in tech history to voice his skepticism: Apple's ousting of Jobs, and Uber forcing out Kalanick.

Ravikant sharply asked, "Haven't we learned that you can't simply replace a founder?" This view quickly resonated within Silicon Valley's inner circle, and Musk also replied concisely yet powerfully under the post with two words: "True words."