- Nvidia's launch of the desktop AI system DGX Spark drew online criticism.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped in as staff mobilized internally to support customers.
- Nvidia has grown increasingly reactive amid stock-price sensitivities, said analyst Anshel Sag.
An internal Nvidia email chain revealed how senior executives at the chip giant — including founder and CEO Jensen Huang — mobilized in response to customer criticism of a key product launch late last year.
The thread offers a glimpse into how the company responds to public backlash as it expands products designed for individual developers and researchers.
The thread, which Business Insider has seen, centered on the launch of DGX Spark, a desktop AI system designed for developers and researchers to build AI products and work on apps for data science, medicine, and other fields.
While much of Nvidia's business targets data center customers, Huang underscored Spark's significance in the thread, calling it the "ultimate developer's platform — out of the box easy to run all NVIDIA."
Spark drew criticism soon after its launch, with some citing software stability and performance issues, which garnered coverage in other tech outlets.
An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.
Anshel Sag, a Moor Insights & Strategy analyst who has tracked Nvidia launches for 15 years and was an early DGX Spark tester, said the company's long experience releasing graphics cards in the gaming industry — where products are routinely scrutinized — has made it adept at handling public feedback, with Huang typically keeping a close eye on new releases.
In recent years, the company has become even more reactive, Sag said, due to increased internal resources and "sensitivity about the stock price and how negative sentiment can draw that down."
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang steps into the fray
In the fall of last year, AstraZeneca executive director Justin Johnson wrote in a LinkedIn post that while the DGX Spark met performance and speed claims, the software experience was buggy and unstable.
After an Nvidia executive shared Johnson's post in an internal email thread, Huang entered the fray.
"Jump on x and say you will fix," he wrote.
Subsequently, an Nvidia engineer replied that the company had reached out to Johnson to resolve most of the issues, which were related to a version mismatch of CUDA, Nvidia's software that allows developers to build AI apps powered by its GPUs.
Johnson responded that he appreciated the outreach and was exploring setting up DGX Spark at the pharmaceutical company, the chain said.
Nvidia staffers ramp up responses
Following Johnson's criticism, Nvidia staffers saw other unfavorable responses online and set up a social listening campaign to flag complaints from other influential figures, as well as discussions on Nvidia forums and Reddit, the emails said.
Staffers tracked complaints and engaged directly with key critics who raised concerns about DGX Spark's performance, heating issues, and pricing.
Another incident involved the researcher Christopher Kouzios, who wrote on LinkedIn that he'd purchased DGX Spark to conduct medical research after his daughter died from a rare brain tumor, with the goal of studying cancer risk in his sons.
Kouzios said software incompatibility had rendered the system unusable and that he'd only received an automated acknowledgment 38 hours after filing a support ticket.
After an Nvidia executive flagged the post, team members said they were fixing the bug, according to the emails. The executive later circulated an updated post in which Kouzios lauded Nvidia's customer support.
"While the situation initially frustrated me, Nvidia's response time was exceptional," Kouzios told Business Insider. "In more than 33 years working with large technology companies, I have never seen an organization respond that quickly to public technical feedback."
It's often standard for hardware to ship without fully finished software, Sag said, adding that Nvidia tends to be more "high-touch" than other tech companies in fielding complaints — an approach that flows down from an exceptionally "hands-on" CEO.
Nvidia has previously faced some launch hiccups and early criticism for new products, such as its Blackwell rollout, which encountered manufacturing challenges.
While a CEO's involvement is notable and Nvidia's backchannel efforts appeared to placate critics, such an approach isn't without risks, another analyst said.
"C-suite engagement during product controversies has become more common in tech, particularly for founder-led companies," said Kate Holterhoff, a senior industry analyst at RedMonk. "It can signal authenticity and accountability, but it also carries reputational risk if the response is perceived as defensive or dismissive."
