Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital Management and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management have asked Nvidia’s board to pursue a “slow, measured, and deliberate process regarding the future leadership of Nvidia that leaves all options on the table, including the potential return of Jensen Huang”. Gerstner posted the one-page letter on X at 23:47 UTC on Friday, saying it “was sent to the Nvidia Board today”; Baker posted the same letter at 00:34 UTC on Saturday, adding “A first for @atreidesmgmt”.
The two funds’ latest 13F filings, for 30 June 2026, listed 10.66 million Nvidia shares worth $2.13 billion combined: 9.41 million shares ($1.88 billion) at Altimeter, 19.2% of the value it reported, and 1.25 million ($250.0 million) at Atreides. That is 0.044% of Nvidia’s 24.1 billion shares outstanding, by our arithmetic.
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The key insight: As we read the letter, its request is about timing rather than outcome: it asks the board not to rush, keeps the former chief executive among the options, and says the final call is the board’s. It comes from two funds whose disclosed Nvidia stake was worth $2.13 billion at 30 June, most of it at Altimeter.
The letter, addressed “To the Distinguished Nvidia Board”, says the two signatories write “as shareholders to share a view that we believe is widely agreed to among shareholders and to make a simple request”. It cites “the extraordinary success of Jensen Huang’s leadership over a long period of time” and “the massive uncertainty associated with recent events” around the exit.
The request is about pace. The letter says: “We believe the Board should avoid a rush to replace Jensen that undermines and thwarts the best interests of shareholders”. It adds that “The company will be capably led in the interim by Colette Kress and team” and that the signatories “have no doubt the Board has the benefit of time to get this right”.
The letter leaves the final call with the directors: “If after all the facts are known the Board decides that it is not in shareholders’ best interest to have Jensen Huang back as CEO, that is the Board’s prerogative”. It ends by saying the founder “has earned the right for a deliberate process that avoids any needless rush to replace him before all the facts are known”.
Those are the letter’s only requests. It does not ask for an investigation, new directors, a special meeting, a shareholder vote or more disclosure, and it names no search firm and no candidate.
Nvidia common shares held by Altimeter Capital Management and Atreides Management at each quarter-end from 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2026, from the funds’ Form 13F-HR filings on SEC EDGAR. Atreides’ 31 December 2025 filing also listed call options on 3.5 million shares.
What Was Posted on X
This letter was sent to the Nvidia Board today which we believe outlines the minimum acceptable standards the Board owes shareholders as it manages this difficult situation. Onward. 🫡
Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter Capital Management, posted this at 23:47 UTC on 13 November with an image of the one-page letter signed by Gerstner and Gavin Baker. The post says the letter was sent to the Nvidia board that day and outlines what Altimeter believes are the minimum acceptable standards the board owes shareholders. The piece quotes the letter verbatim from this image.
This letter was sent to Nvidia’s board today.
A first for @atreidesmgmt
Absolutely share @altcap belief that this letter outlines minimum acceptable standards.
Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management, posted the same letter 47 minutes later, at 00:34 UTC on 14 November, calling it a first for Atreides and agreeing with Gerstner’s view that it outlines minimum acceptable standards. The piece uses it to confirm the second signatory.
Who Signed It and What They Posted
The letter is signed by Brad Gerstner, CEO, Altimeter Capital Management, and Gavin Baker, Managing Partner & CIO, Atreides Management, each in an electronic signature box under the two firms’ logos. It carries no date line. Gerstner’s post called it “the minimum acceptable standards the Board owes shareholders as it manages this difficult situation”; by about 00:52 UTC api.fxtwitter.com showed 169,354 views for it.
Baker’s post, 47 minutes later, said: “Absolutely share @altcap belief that this letter outlines minimum acceptable standards”. It does not say more about why the letter is a first for Atreides. A day earlier, at 01:03 UTC on 13 November, Gerstner had written on X: “And no better interim leader than Colette Kress who knows every nook & cranny of the business”, and “Not spinning this as happy or good news – just offering a dose of realism”.
What the 13F Filings Show
Altimeter’s 13F for 30 June 2026, filed on 14 August, lists 9,413,589 Nvidia shares valued at $1,883,565,023, out of $9.83 billion across the filing’s 20 line items. Its Nvidia count was 8,252,160 shares a year earlier, so the position grew 14.1% over the four quarters, by our arithmetic; the June quarter added 77,550 shares.
Atreides’ 13F for the same date lists 1,249,291 Nvidia shares valued at $249,970,636, or 1.7% of its $14.34 billion across 49 line items, by our arithmetic. Its filing for 31 December 2025 also listed call options on 3.5 million Nvidia shares; the March and June 2026 filings show no Nvidia option position.
Both filings value Nvidia at $200.09 a share, the 30 June price. They show positions at that date, not today’s; by 00:50 UTC on 14 November neither fund had filed a 13F for a later quarter. Against Nvidia’s 24.1 billion shares, the 10-Q cover count as of 21 August, Altimeter’s stake was 0.039% and Atreides’ 0.005%, by our arithmetic.
Values from the Altimeter Capital Management and Atreides Management Form 13F-HR filings for 30 June 2026 on SEC EDGAR. The percentages, Nvidia value divided by each filing’s table total, are our arithmetic.
Where the Board and the Rules Stand
Nvidia’s Form 8-K of 12 November named Colette Kress interim chief executive “while the Board conducts a search for a new Chief Executive Officer”, and the attached release said the board “will consider internal and external candidates”. On 13 November the board told CNBC: “We are in the process of selecting a search firm for the Nvidia CEO role” and “We have not formally engaged any potential candidates”, as our piece on the board’s statement sets out.
Under Nvidia’s bylaws, officers “hold office at the pleasure of the Board of Directors”, and a special meeting can be requested only by holders of at least 15% of the voting power held for a year, as our piece on the bylaws and the petition details. On the 24.1 billion share count, 15% is about 3.6 billion shares, roughly 340 times the two funds’ combined 13F stake, by our arithmetic.
Other public calls have come in the same week: an online petition that Elon Musk backed on X on Friday, and lawmakers’ requests for testimony from the former chief executive, which our piece on Representative Brian Mast’s comments covers. Our founder-control comparison shows the former chief executive held 3.58% of Nvidia in the 2026 proxy.
The Structural Read
As we read the 13F filings, the two signatories have different exposure: Nvidia was 19.2% of the value Altimeter reported at 30 June and 1.7% of Atreides’, by our arithmetic. Altimeter’s count rose from 8,252,160 shares a year earlier to 9,413,589.
As we read the governance documents, a letter like this works by persuasion: under Nvidia’s bylaws officers serve at the pleasure of the board, and the shareholder route between annual meetings needs 15% of the vote held for a year, as our piece on the bylaws sets out. The two funds’ combined 13F stake was 0.044% of Nvidia’s shares.
Letter to Nvidia’s board from Brad Gerstner (Altimeter) and Gavin Baker (Atreides), posted on X on 13-14 November 2026
“If after all the facts are known the Board decides that it is not in shareholders’ best interest to have Jensen Huang back as CEO, that is the Board’s prerogative.”
Three Implications
FOR NVIDIA INVESTORS The board said on 13 November it is still selecting a search firm and has not formally engaged any candidate; the next fixed date is the third-quarter results on 17 November. Our piece on the board’s statement has its full wording.
FOR READERS OF 13F DATA The stakes in this piece are as of 30 June 2026, the latest quarter both funds have filed; positions on the day of the letter are not disclosed.
FOR READERS OF THE COVERAGE The letter names Colette Kress as the interim leader and names no candidate for the permanent role. Our founder-control comparison has the ownership figures from the 2026 proxy.
The framework describes the AI Supercycle as having “a layered industrial stack of nine layers, running from energy at the bedrock to governance at the ceiling”.
As we read it, a letter from shareholders to a board about who leads a company in the silicon layer is a governance-ceiling event, and the bylaws decide who acts on it. The framework does not discuss Nvidia’s board, the letter or its signatories.
What Is Not Established
The letter has no date line; both posts say it was sent to the board on 13 November. When we checked at 00:50 UTC on 14 November, Nvidia had filed nothing with the SEC since its 8-K of 12 November, and a news search found no Nvidia response to the letter.
The 13F filings show holdings at 30 June 2026, so the two funds’ stakes on the day of the letter are not known. The letter says its view is “widely agreed to among shareholders”; no other holder’s name appears on it. We did not contact Nvidia, Altimeter or Atreides for this piece, and we leave out personal material.
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Two funds that held $2.13 billion of Nvidia stock at 30 June have asked the board for a deliberate search that keeps a return of Jensen Huang among the options, while calling the final decision “the Board’s prerogative”. The board said on Friday it is still selecting a search firm. Nvidia’s next fixed date is its third-quarter results on 17 November; our first piece on the exit has tracked the story from the start.
A note on sourcing. The letter was read from the images attached to Brad Gerstner’s and Gavin Baker’s X posts (both carry the same text), which we read in full through api.fxtwitter.com between 00:45 and 00:52 UTC on 14 November; view counts are as that service returned them. Holdings come from each fund’s Form 13F-HR information tables on SEC EDGAR, the latest being for 30 June 2026; Nvidia’s share count is the 10-Q cover figure from SEC XBRL data.
The 8-K and release of 12 November were read in full that day; the board’s statement is quoted from CNBC’s article as read on 13 November. Percentages, totals and multiples are our arithmetic. We leave out personal material. We did not contact Nvidia, Altimeter or Atreides for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
