Nvidia Executive Calls Viral Letter Demanding Huang's Return 'Obviously Fake'

Catanzaro said on November 13 that he had nothing to do with the letter and would not have signed it even if it were real, according to Wccftech and Crypto Briefing. He also said he supports Nvidia's board and interim chief executive Colette Kress.

The denial complicates efforts to gauge how Nvidia's staff are reacting to Huang's departure. It comes at a delicate time for the company. Huang resigned over his relationship with Alice Huang, an executive at the Nvidia customer Megaspeed. The board says it has not yet hired a search firm or formally approached candidates to replace him, and Nvidia reports quarterly results next week under interim leadership.

According to The Standard in Hong Kong, the letter said hundreds of employees had signed it. It demanded that the board bring Huang back and appoint new independent directors, said the board lacked the competence to oversee Nvidia, and accused it of acting in bad faith by giving no written evidence for Huang's removal. It also warned that the signatories could leave for SpaceX's Terafab chip project. It claimed Elon Musk had promised jobs there for any Nvidia employee who wanted one.

Neither Musk nor SpaceX has publicly confirmed that offer. Catanzaro was the only named signatory to say publicly whether the list was genuine. Coverage of the episode noted that the letter's structure and wording closely resemble the open letter OpenAI employees sent in November 2023 after the board removed Sam Altman. In that letter, staff threatened to follow him to Microsoft.

Even if the letter is fake, there are signs of real support for Huang inside the company. WIRED reported that a longtime engineer posted on an internal suggestion forum urging the board to take employee sentiment into account. The post drew more than 1,600 comments, several of them calling for Huang's return. "If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss," one anonymous commenter wrote, according to WIRED. Another wrote that Huang "did so many good things and he needs a second chance."

The Standard reported that one companywide email called for a transparent investigation into Huang's exit, and that about 20 employees posted supportive messages on LinkedIn within hours of the announcement.

Nvidia has not commented publicly on the letter or on the internal posts. Kress is due to present the company's results on Tuesday, her first earnings report as interim chief executive.