A petition to reinstate Jensen Huang as the leader of NVIDIA now has over 100,000 signatures, including some big names of support like Elon Musk.  As the situation unfolds, here’s what it looks like.

First, Jensen Huang is an exceptional pioneer leading the U.S. tech sector in the advancement of ever-faster compute power.  Huang believes in free markets and global competition within the data processing field, and he believes in open source AI models that are transparent in their ability.

Huang led by building the fastest computational data processing microchips in the world, and his NVIDIA team continues to lead the world in the sector.  His products drive some of the most critical computational infrastructure in the world; he is an excellent salesman for his products and well respected.

The issues with Alice Huang and Megaspeed in Singapore don’t look as much like a “spy” operation as they do old fashioned industrial espionage, where Singapore based Megaspeed was set up to purchase large amounts of microchips from NVIDIA and back channel the product to China, a country regulated and blocked from purchasing them.

Alice Huang formed a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang and leveraged that relationship to make the purchases.

Jensen Huang was publicly very pragmatic about his products and didn’t view Chinese competition as a threat to his business model because he believed he could always out-compete them technologically.  It appears Jensen looked at China as likely to find a way to get the chips regardless of the regulatory limits the U.S. placed on Beijing.  As a consequence, he likely didn’t view his relationship with Alice as any real risk because he viewed his company as being able to outproduce a better product even if China had access.

Because Huang had a founder’s perspective on his industry, he felt his position and company was strong enough to take on any competition.  However, the board of directors at NVIDIA has a professional management perspective, born from business school outlooks and CEO training.

Business Schools teach that executive managerial skills are learned and transferrable from one company to the next.  However, a founder mentality doesn’t lead by managing his industry. Jensen pushed frontiers and created dynamic technological advancements; he didn’t manage them.

A founder versus a corporation manager is an entirely different mindset and skillset.  Without Jensen Huang leading NVIDIA the emphasis shifts and people are now starting to realize the entrepreneurial loss within the distinction.  People are starting to rally around Huang and demand the Board of Directors reverse their decision to replace him.

BUSINESS INSIDER – […] The “Stand with Jensen” organizers said in an open letter to Nvidia’s board posted to its website that they believe the board removed Huang without an investigation and “meaningful due process.”

“We have not been shown evidence substantiating the espionage allegation. After thirty-three years pouring his heart and soul into NVIDIA, Jensen deserves due process, not mob justice,” they said.

The organizers say they want Huang to remain CEO while the investigation continues.

“Disclose its scope and timeline, give him a meaningful opportunity to respond, and provide a clear, evidence-based explanation demonstrating that any removal is in NVIDIA’s best interests. The campaign does not treat espionage allegations as proven facts or presume the inquiry’s findings,” the organizers said.

The Nvidia employee who spoke to Business Insider said that despite any mistakes Huang had made, he was a singular leader in the vein of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. He gave employees a “surge of motivation” and surprised them with new ideas and products.

“Nvidia is not doomed without him, but it would not be the same,” they said. (read more)