Elon Musk stated that he would welcome Huang to his company if Nvidia's board decides to dismiss its long-time CEO, Jensen Huang. On Wednesday evening, financial media outlet ZeroHedge posted on the X platform, "Elon please hire Jensen," to which Musk replied about two hours later, "It would be my honor." As of Wednesday evening, neither Huang nor Nvidia had publicly responded. Musk's reply came during a Nvidia board meeting discussing Huang's future.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, board members are preparing to dismiss him due to reports of two extramarital affairs. One of the relationships involves Singaporean businessman Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence officials believe has ties to China's Ministry of State Security. The New York Times separately reported on Huang's relationship with Kimberly Powell, vice president of Nvidia's healthcare division. In a memo to employees on Sunday, Huang acknowledged infidelity but did not provide details.
Nvidia's bylaws stipulate that a majority of the 11 board members can dismiss the CEO with or without cause. According to Bloomberg, the board has been working with external firms to find potential replacements and may appoint an interim CEO, with current CFO Colette Kress seen as the most likely candidate. According to CNBC, Nvidia's stock price fell more than 8% in extended trading, as the company plans to report quarterly earnings on November 17. Musk's reliance on Nvidia's leadership exceeds that of many tech executives.
This August, during the first earnings call since SpaceX became a public company, he told investors that they would specifically build their AI infrastructure on Nvidia hardware, calling Vera Rubin the "best architecture." SpaceX is also collaborating with Nvidia to provide computational load for its planned orbital AI constellation, Starmind.
Nvidia board's decision-making process regarding CEO dismissal
In October, SpaceX announced it had reached a binding agreement to lease approximately $40 billion worth of Vera Rubin GPUs and related equipment, with the lease expected to commence in the first half of 2027. The scale of this dependency is already substantial. During the third-quarter earnings call, SpaceX stated it would bring online approximately 200,000 to 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs each month, expecting to reach a nominal computing capacity of 2.5 to 3 GW by the end of the year. This expansion plan is now moving into new locations, such as the proposed $24 billion power plant and supercomputer campus at Starbase.
The relationship between the two executives dates back nearly a decade. Huang has recounted multiple times the story of personally delivering Nvidia's first DGX-1 AI supercomputer to Musk in 2016, at a time when no other customers were willing to take it. "No one wanted to be involved except Elon," Huang said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience last December.
Musk did not specify the role Huang might take, and his response did not constitute a formal invitation. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and currently holds about 3.6% of the company's shares, so whether he leaves the chipmaker, which has been operating for over thirty years, and how he leaves will determine if he can join Musk's company.