{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T18:39:00.848Z","source":{"name":"Hacker News public API","url":"https://github.com/HackerNews/API","attribution":"Stories and comments are public Hacker News submissions by their respective authors. HackerHub is an independent reader, not affiliated with Y Combinator.","content_is_untrusted":true},"story_id":50467087,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467087","total_comments":1833,"returned":20,"scope":"Up to the requested number of top-level comments in Hacker News ranked order. Deleted comments are omitted. Nested replies are not fetched; this is not the complete thread.","comments":[{"id":50467199,"author":"duplessitous","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:01:13.000Z","text":"I hope people understand that the affairs are not the reason he is being fired - NVIDIA has supposedly been skirting the export ban put in place by the previous administration. This was put in place for national security reasons. Whether you agree or disagree with the ban, it exists and Jensen&NVIDIA are in a world of trouble if this comes to light.\nFrom all the reporting I've read, it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that NVIDIA sold to China despite the export ban. I'd love to be wrong","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":113,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467199"},{"id":50467672,"author":"kphorn","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:21:04.000Z","text":"Jensen has created more shareholder value than nearly any human on earth. Significantly more than Elon, with the key distinction that Jensen has distributed much more of that shareholder value than Elon has through stock options to employees and appreciation of public stock (it’s one of the reasons he’s worth 150Bn vs 1Tn).\nI think the real risk for the economy, the AI industry, and the US is that Nvidia becomes JUST another company. Nvidia losing 50% of its value from its peak means it’s still a $3 trillion company. What if it loses 90%? Then it’s the size of Intel which we generally agree is an important part of the industry.\nNvidia can afford to invest in companies because the stock is so high and capital is incredibly abundant. Those companies buy Nvidia products at the 50% NET margins. Nvidia gets a ton of cash. Earnings are crazy. But if this cycle stops and efficiency wins in the market (lower margins, more competitors, more options), then Nvidia goes back to where they were which was a Tier-1/2 supplier battling for margin and market share. That is not a $6T company.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":19,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467672"},{"id":50469788,"author":"rcr-anti","created_at":"2026-11-12T16:14:58.000Z","text":"It is baffling to read comments that this is excusable or he should be retained 'in interest of the shareholders'. Setting aside the obviously poor judgement, the appearance of impropriety has serious ammunition behind a situation that already looked weird. More practically, he's compromised now. Whether it's further scandal or the impending criminal investigations, there might be further hooks people have on him.\nThe quote about succession planning is also a little out of context, he phrased it more that there should be continual information and responsibility sharing such that succession planning is effectively redundant or unnecessary.\nI always wondered why investors were ok with not having any control due to dual structure shares and board composition. A \"Great Men\" theory of the world is a convenient and satisfying narrative, but it's usually not the best at explaining things. As the saying goes, \"The cemeteries are full of indispensable men\".","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":8,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50469788"},{"id":50468868,"author":"jupake","created_at":"2026-11-12T15:22:15.000Z","text":"I cant help but see a difference in the moral standard to which Jensen is being held compared to the moral standard that someone like Elon is being held. Why can one get away with shocking moral behaviour, but the other has to step down for a mild affair. If Jensen didnt have the affair, or it never came to light, would all of this still have taken place?\nWhen Cambridge Analytica happened, no one kicked Mark out of Facebook/Meta.\nNot making excuses for Jensen, at his status and power level, this stuff goes with the territory. But I cant help but see a double standard here.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":21,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50468868"},{"id":50467637,"author":"ddxv","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:19:43.000Z","text":"Just a sad state of affairs. Jensen was by far the biggest voice pushing for open weights and keeping the Anthropic / OpenAI doom narrative from getting out of control.\nNow without him there will be a vacuum for the ideologies of Dario / Elon / Sam to fill the void.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":2,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467637"},{"id":50467870,"author":"specproc","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:30:41.000Z","text":"Jensen's the most pro-open weight guy and calmest on China public figure at that level.\nMusk has done, and continues to do, the most horrific stuff, including things far more questionable from a US security perspective. Altman's reputation is not one of honesty and fair dealing. We've had very clear evidence of Microsoft's leadership being caught in honey-traps by foreign governments. No heads rolled.\nTin foil hat take: I think Jensen's been sniped.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":6,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467870"},{"id":50467221,"author":"lvl256","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:02:10.000Z","text":"For all his faults, I do feel for Jensen. He built this thing from an absolute scratch. He had a lot of luck on the way, from crypto to CUDA. And who can forget his spat with Jobs all those years ago.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":11,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467221"},{"id":50467344,"author":"dewwi","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:08:12.000Z","text":"I hope this won't change NVIDIA's refusal to block inference for unsigned and registered open-models in the firmware of modern GPUs. Anthropic and others are pushing hard on this. First the hardware export ban, eventually the software one via hardware-enforced execution controls like IETF hinted at","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":6,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467344"},{"id":50467245,"author":"mynti","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:03:01.000Z","text":"I think this just confirms that he had knowledge of gpus going to China and the board wants to minimize the damage now. His infidelity does not help but I doubt the board would have ousted him for that","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":7,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467245"},{"id":50467203,"author":"Taek","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:01:33.000Z","text":"I have to imagine that Jensen is under an enormous amount of stress right now. I hope whatever he's going through he's got support. This all seems to be happening way too quickly to be just.\nLike, maybe him stepping down is the right decision. But it feels like a hit job and something that was pushed through, rather than something that was properly considered as what is actually best for the company.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":30,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467203"},{"id":50468274,"author":"HumblyTossed","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:52:15.000Z","text":"I'm actually surprised at this. I figured everyone would justify keeping him because he made Nvidia (and investors) so much money. Money > anything else","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":7,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50468274"},{"id":50467861,"author":"jakozaur","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:30:01.000Z","text":"Jensen, even after decades, remained deeply involved in many operational decisions with 40+ direct reports. He had a long-term mindset, investing heavily in Tegra and CUDA in 2009-2010, even as he was plagued by write-offs from faulty chips.\nThis is a terrible decision for NVIDIA and the broader economy. Jensen gets to retire with $100B+ and not deal with the crap.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":4,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467861"},{"id":50467402,"author":"Sol-","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:10:27.000Z","text":"Can't help that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the China hawk fraction of the US government and associated entities (i.e. Anthropic) obviously brought the hammer down on Jensen here, even if he arguably brought about his own downfall with the affair.\nI assume leaning on Nvidia to integrate chip verification and tracking to not let any unmonitored compute exist in the world is next, which is also in line with what the leading US labs want.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":3,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467402"},{"id":50468224,"author":"binarymax","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:49:20.000Z","text":"The apologists in this thread are absolutely shocking. Jensen is a ruthless CEO who clearly lacks moral fiber. Why do we idolize and \"feel\" for people like this?","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":9,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50468224"},{"id":50467327,"author":"bekman","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:07:17.000Z","text":"NVIDIA without Jensen? That’s a huge risk. The company may be bigger than ever but replacing its visionary won't be easy.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":7,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467327"},{"id":50471970,"author":"utopcell","created_at":"2026-11-12T18:34:47.000Z","text":"Hopefully this is all for show and he'll come back soon.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":0,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50471970"},{"id":50467699,"author":"igleria","created_at":"2026-11-12T14:22:11.000Z","text":"He wanted to have the cake and to eat it at the same time. I've seen CEO's who handled this in a much more orderly way, such as: getting a divorce, then announcing internally to the company that he is getting a divorce, then announcing he has found new love with a certain person at the company and in the same sentence announcing that the certain person effectively no longer answers to him, but to the board or something like that.\nStill icky, but this person still enjoys success as a CEO of their company. Huang not anymore.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":0,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50467699"},{"id":50471518,"author":"kuberwastaken","created_at":"2026-11-12T18:07:55.000Z","text":"Tweet by Jared Friedman [1] \"The people on the Nvidia Board:\n1. Jensen Huang - Co-founder, President & CEO\n2. Tench Coxe - Former Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures\n3. John O. Dabiri - Professor of Aeronautics & Mechanical Engineering, Caltech\n4. Dawn Hudson - Former CMO of the NFL, former CEO Pepsi-Cola North America\n5. Harvey C. Jones - Managing Partner, Square Wave Ventures\n6. Melissa B. Lora - Former President, Taco Bell International\n7. Stephen C. Neal - Lead Independent Director; Chairman Emeritus, Cooley LLP\n8. Suzanne Nora Johnson - former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs\n9. A. Brooke Seawell - Venture Partner, New Enterprise Associates\n10. Aarti Shah - Former SVP & Chief Information/Digital Officer, Eli Lilly\n11. Mark A. Stevens - former Managing Partner at Sequoia Capital\"\n1 - https://x.com/snowmaker/status/2120902014389694684","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":0,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50471518"},{"id":50468947,"author":"hackles_raised","created_at":"2026-11-12T15:26:05.000Z","text":"I didn't care who he's tupping, yes he's a piece of shit and his wife should take him to the cleaners. What we should all be looking at is how far the company was prepared to go in pursuit of greater profits and start evaluating the circular financing of the AI industry with that in mind.","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":0,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50468947"},{"id":50468730,"author":"bitbasher","created_at":"2026-11-12T15:15:22.000Z","text":"How illegal is it for a CEO to sell goods (potentially a core component used in military weapons) to a foreign government after your government said not to?","parent_id":50467087,"replies_count":5,"hn_url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50468730"}]}