Elon Musk Warns Against Pushing Founders Out — Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick Lessons Resurface as Jensen Huang Exits Nvidia

As NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) co-founder Jensen Huang resigned from his role as the chipmaker’s CEO, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk warned against the removal of founders, pointing to Apple Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Steve Jobs and Uber Technologies Inc.‘s(NYSE:UBER) Travis Kalanick.

Musk Warns Against Removing Founders

In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, investor and co-founder of AngelList, Naval Ravikant, warned against removing founders. “You’d think we’d have learned from Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick that one does not just simply replace the founder…” he said.

You’d think we’d have learned from Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick that one does not just simply replace the founder…

— Naval (@naval) November 12, 2026

Following Ravikant’s post, Musk agreed with the take. “True words,” the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO said in his response.

True words

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2026

Steve Jobs, Travis Kalanick’s Departures

Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, departed the company after differences with the tech giant’s then-CEO John Sculley in 1985. Following Jobs’ departure, Apple struggled to maintain its momentum as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), led by Bill Gates, continued to gain ground in the personal computer (PC) space.

Jobs returned to Apple as the CEO in 1997 and was largely responsible for the company’s revival with products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iTunes, App Store and more. Jobs was the CEO of Apple until his resignation in 2011 following health complications caused by pancreatic cancer.

Meanwhile, Kalanick departed from his role as the CEO of the ride-hailing company in 2017 following allegations that he had ignored several sexual harassment reports at the company, with major investors demanding his resignation. Kalanick was replaced by Uber’s current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in August that year.

Elon Musk to Hire Jensen Huang?

The comments come as Huang resigned from his role as the CEO of Nvidia following reports of his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy, as well as his alleged relationship with another Nvidia executive.

Preceding the news of his departure, Musk was asked by users on social media to hire Huang, to which the billionaire responded that it would be an “honor” to work with the Nvidia co-founder.

SpaceX and Nvidia share deep collaboration as the commercial spaceflight giant is sourcing its AI compute hardware from the chipmaker, while Nvidia chips will also be a crucial element to Musk’s Starmind constellation of dedicated AI satellites.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock