--- title: Jensen Huang Is Reportedly Weighing a Return to Nvidia, and the Decision Belongs to 10 Directors Who Accepted His Resignation description: Allies are reportedly building a 'war room' to get Jensen Huang reinstated, while Scott Bessent says Nvidia's board should hire an outside CEO. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-15T21:23:24.250Z updated: 2026-11-15T21:23:24.257Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/jensen-huang-return-nvidia image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/jensen-huang-return-nvidia.webp categories: Leadership, Business content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Person name: Jensen Huang description: Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia, the chipmaker based in Santa Clara, California, in 1993 and was its chief executive until he resigned in November 2026. --- Jensen Huang has discussed returning as Nvidia's chief executive with people close to him, and one of his allies told [the Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/45383d86-33c4-4d99-86e5-5e058d3567c1) that a "war room" of Silicon Valley executives is being put together to press the company's board to reinstate him and to seek support from the White House. "Everyone that matters in tech outside the frontier labs loves Jensen," the ally said. On the same day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News that Nvidia should "go outside the company" for its next chief executive. "They need a dramatic shake-up," he said. The choice belongs to Nvidia's board. Huang left it when he [resigned as chief executive](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/jensen-huang-resigns-nvidia), and its 10 remaining directors, all independent, can appoint a chief executive by majority vote without asking shareholders. "We are in the process of selecting a search firm for the Nvidia CEO role," the board said in a statement on Friday. "Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature." The Financial Times reported the same day that the board had approached Rene Haas, the chief executive of the chip designer Arm, who worked at Nvidia for seven years before joining Arm in 2013. ## Two Shareholders Have Asked the Board to Keep Huang's Return on the Table Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management wrote to the board on Friday asking it to "pursue a slow, measured, and deliberate process regarding the future leadership of Nvidia that leaves all options on the table, including the potential return of Jensen Huang." Altimeter held 9.4 million Nvidia shares and Atreides 1.2 million at the end of June, together less than 0.1% of the company. "If after all the facts are known the Board decides that it is not in shareholders' best interest to have Jensen Huang back as CEO, that is the Board's prerogative," they wrote. > "The Founder and long time incredible leader of this extraordinary company has earned the right for a deliberate process that avoids any needless rush to replace him before all the facts are known." > — Brad Gerstner and Gavin Baker, in a letter to Nvidia's board An online petition called Stand with Jensen, which asks the board to reinstate him while its investigation runs, had more than 150,000 signatures by Sunday, among them Elon Musk, the Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney and the Y Combinator chief executive Garry Tan. More than 7,000 signers say they work at Nvidia. Musk wrote on X on Saturday that without Huang "critical deals will be lost." Inside the company, a post in Nvidia's internal suggestion box urging the board to take staff views into account had drawn more than 1,600 comments by Thursday night, several of them asking for Huang to come back, Wired reported. ## About 60 Executives Reported Directly to Huang, Which Leaves No Obvious Successor Huang built Nvidia around himself. He has said he had about 60 people reporting directly to him and held no one-on-one meetings with them, preferring to give instructions to groups so that everyone heard the same thing at the same time. The structure helped make him popular with many staff, and it means whoever follows him inherits a company with no second layer of leadership waiting to take over. Nvidia, valued at nearly $4 trillion, never named a successor. ## Bessent Questions Whether Nvidia Pushed Sales That Broke Export Rules Bessent's criticism went beyond Huang. "I want to keep coming back to what was the culture at Nvidia, and were they pressing these seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings?" he said on Sunday. "If this were a bank and they hadn't complied like this, the OCC would be in there right now, and a lot of the executives would be removed," he added, referring to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises US banks. He has also said that other departments wanted Megaspeed, the Nvidia customer at the centre of the case, on the government's trade blacklist for months. His view puts him at odds with Huang's allies, who want the White House on their side, and with President Donald Trump, who called Huang a legend after he resigned and suggested Apple's Tim Cook should replace him. Trump travels to China this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen. ## Huang Has Agreed to Answer Congress's Questions in a Closed-Door Session Asked on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday whether Huang had agreed to a closed-door interview with Congress, John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said, "Yes he has." "We are in the process of discussing exact dates, but yes, they said they will be forthcoming," he said, adding that the meeting would show "to what degree privileged information was accessed, also to what degree this potential alleged Chinese spy influenced Nvidia's philosophy." The independent directors are still investigating Huang with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and the former federal prosecutor Joon H. Kim, and the Financial Times said the talk of a return is taking place alongside it. Huang's supporters point to Attorney General Todd Blanche's statement that the Justice Department has reached no conclusions about Alice Huang, the former Megaspeed executive at the centre of the case, and to reports that the memo that started the scandal was [Marco Rubio's stronger version of a CIA report](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/rubio-memo-alice-huang-cia). "There are more questions about recent events than answers," Gerstner and Baker wrote. Next week will test both sides of the argument. [Colette Kress, the interim chief executive](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/colette-kress-nvidia-interim-ceo), reports Nvidia's third-quarter results on Tuesday and holds a company-wide meeting with staff on Wednesday morning. Nvidia shares closed at $162.85 on Friday, about 6% below their close on 11 November, the day before Huang's resignation was announced. ## FAQ **Q: Can Jensen Huang return to Nvidia?** Yes, if Nvidia's board decides to bring him back. Huang resigned as chief executive and as a director, and the board's 10 remaining directors, all independent, appoint the chief executive by majority vote, with no shareholder vote required. Huang has reportedly discussed a return with people close to him, and some shareholders have asked the board to keep it as an option, but the board says it is choosing a search firm and its investigation into Huang is continuing. His stake of about 3.6% makes him one of the company's biggest investors. **Q: Who could be the next Nvidia CEO?** Colette Kress, the finance chief, is running the company for now. The board says it will consider internal and external candidates and is choosing a search firm, and it has called speculation about individual names premature. The board reportedly approached Rene Haas, the chief executive of Arm, who worked at Nvidia for seven years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Nvidia should go outside the company, President Donald Trump has suggested Apple's Tim Cook, and Huang's allies want him back. **Q: What does Elon Musk say about Nvidia?** Musk signed the Stand with Jensen petition asking Nvidia's board to reinstate Jensen Huang, and wrote on X that without Huang "critical deals will be lost." The petition had more than 150,000 signatures by 15 November.