Jensen Huang resigned as NVIDIA CEO: before that Elon Musk said he would be happy to hire him

Elon Musk said it would be an honor for him to hire Jensen Huang, who on November 12 resigned as president and chief executive officer and left the board of directors.

Musk wrote about his willingness to hire Huang on X in response to a post suggesting inviting him to join his team.

@zerohedge That would be an honor

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2026

Musk and Huang have known each other for at least ten years. This year they both participated in US President Donald Trump’s visit to China. 

President Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with the head of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, May 14, 2026 / White House

Musk’s company xAI uses NVIDIA chips to train artificial intelligence. In October 2024 NVIDIA said that the Colossus supercomputer in Memphis combines 100,000 of its Hopper GPUs. It also uses NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X networking platform to move data between them. According to the company, the complex was built in 122 days.

Oracle co‑founder Larry Ellison also spoke about demand for NVIDIA chips. In September 2024 he recalled a dinner with Musk and Huang at Nobu in Palo Alto. According to Ellison, he and Musk “begged” NVIDIA’s chief to sell them more GPUs.

$ORCL CTO Larry Ellison: “I went to dinner with @elonmusk, Jensen Huang..& I would describe the dinner as Oracle & me & Elon begging Jensen for GPUs. Please take our money….No, no, take more of it. You’re not taking out enough. We need you to take more of our money, please” https://t.co/atBUJaULCS

— The Transcript (@TheTranscript_) September 14, 2024

In October 2025 Huang personally delivered the compact AI supercomputer DGX Spark to Musk at SpaceX.

In 2016 he likewise handed the first DGX‑1 to the OpenAI team, of which Musk was then a member.

Who took over NVIDIA after Jensen Huang’s resignation

NVIDIA’s interim CEO is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress. She will combine those duties while the board searches for a permanent leader among internal and external candidates.

Amid news of Huang’s departure, NVIDIA shares fell about 10% in U.S. premarket trading.

How Jensen Huang left NVIDIA

According to Bloomberg, the turning point was a Financial Times story on November 6 in which U.S. officials described Huang’s relationship with businesswoman Elis Huang as romantic.

After that, NVIDIA’s chief legal officer Tim Teter visited Huang at home, and Huang admitted to the romance. Before that, Bloomberg sources say, the executive denied any infidelity in conversations with friends and colleagues.

Teter insisted the board needed to respond to the situation. The company announced an investigation involving the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. On November 8 Huang sent employees a letter in which he acknowledged the infidelity, apologized to his family and promised to cooperate with investigators.

After a New York Times report about Huang’s alleged relationship with his subordinate, Vice President Kimberly Powell, the board convened a remote meeting. According to Bloomberg, it ran until late on November 11, and Huang was ultimately left with no choice but to resign. NVIDIA officially announced his departure the next morning without naming reasons.

Interim CEO Colette Kress, in a letter to employees, acknowledged the company is going through a very difficult period and thanked the team for their work. She also promised to hold an all‑hands meeting on November 18 — the day after NVIDIA’s quarterly results are released.

Read also: Apple shuts down its support community after 28 years: what will change for users