At most trillion-dollar tech titans, an engineer submitting a resignation letter undergoes a formal exit interview with the HR department. But Nvidia Corp’s Jensen Huang has an unconventional, hands-on management style that extends beyond the boardroom. Business Insider reported.
The billionaire co-founder counsels departing employees with a combination of sharp business criticism, personal care and, in some cases, follow-up financial support.
His unique style was evident in the case of David Heller and Nikita Rudin, key robotics and artificial intelligence engineers who left Nvidia in 2024.
The duo spent years working on robotics at the chip giant, pushing the boundaries of simulation and helping create a demo that saw Huang take the stage with an ensemble of humanoids.
Hungry for independence and the opportunity to use that intelligence in the real world, they left the chip company to prepare to launch their own startup, Flexion Robotics.
During a late-night call with their CEO from a technology conference in Munich, the duo braced themselves for backlash. But Juan didn’t try to stop them; instead, he misrepresented the working name of their venture: Checkpoint.
“He told us the name was bad and that we had to change it,” Rudin told Business Insider, adding that they had heard from others that the name sounded like it belonged in a different industry. “I don’t want to give him credit, but we probably changed it because of his comment.”
They said Huang then conducted a reality check on the brutal mechanics of enterprise management. “His message was, ‘We don’t realize how difficult this journey is going to be,’” Rudin said.
Flexion’s example gives an idea of how Huang advises his departing founders: with encouragement and a little embellishment.
This directness extends throughout Nvidia’s culture; Juan is known for breaking down management hierarchies, moving between project teams, and directly intervening in everything from detailed code output to customer dissatisfaction.
The tough love paid dividends: the duo renamed their startup Flexion Robotics, opened a store in Zurich, and later enlisted the help of Nvidia itself. Flexion is now expanding into the US with a San Francisco office and recruits from Meta, and has raised more than $57 million.
“The most honest review”
Bing Xu joined Nvidia in 2024 when the company acquired his first startup. Earlier this year, he decided to dump a potentially life-changing mountain of untraded Nvidia shares and launch INT21, a company that uses artificial intelligence to improve chip software.
When Xu broke the news, Huang gathered him and several senior Nvidia executives for a two-hour meeting, according to Business Insider. He tried to persuade him to stay, but when it became clear that Xu had made up his mind, the CEO harshly criticized his blind spots in management.
Huang told Xu that communication is his biggest professional responsibility, which could strangle his ceiling as a founder.
Xu, the report said, had a habit of assuming that everyone at the table had the technical depth of his niche, which made his presentations confusing and difficult to follow. Huang believes being at Nvidia will give him a safer opportunity to learn this skill.
“This is the most honest review I’ve had in 10 years,” Xu, who now works for a public relations firm, told Business Insider. “I didn’t think my communication would be such a big problem, but when Jensen told me about it, I decided I could take this opportunity to become a better version of myself.”
However, the marathon standoff was not without sympathy, he noted.
Understanding that Xu was struggling with high blood pressure and other health problems at the time, Huang advised him to pause, take a break and recuperate before starting work on the startup.
For Xu, this combination of relentless criticism and personal well-being confirmed what many who left Nvidia have discovered: CEO outspokenness is not meant to burn bridges, but to create more efficient operators.