• 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.”

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gweiss@businessinsider.com or Signal at @geoffweiss.25. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

• Local officials approved an Amazon plan to build a 225,000 square-foot mega store near Chicago.
• Plans said the facility would be used for both in-person shopping and e-commerce fulfillment.
• The move would put Amazon in more direct competition with big-box stores like Walmart and Target.

Amazon is beefing up its physical retail game with a new big-box store concept that goes well beyond groceries.

Village officials in Orland Park, Illinois, voted on Tuesday to approve Amazon’s plan to build a 228,000-square-foot mega store near Chicago. That’s roughly the size of a newer, larger Walmart Supercenter.

Planning documents said the facility would offer both groceries and general merchandise, as well as other services and prepared food options. Customers would also be able to place and receive online orders on-site.

Katie Jahnke Dale, an attorney for Amazon, told the planning commission that the plan is “a more purpose-built and thoughtful” approach to traditional big-box stores, according to the Orland Park Patch.

“This is a retail concept, a retail store, albeit with perhaps a larger storeroom in the back, which will allow us to enhance the customer experience,” she said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because hypermarkets like this one have been a staple of American retail since 1988, when Walmart opened its first Supercenter outside St. Louis. Walmart now has about 4,600 US stores.

Of course, Amazon is no stranger to physical retail — at least in comparatively smaller formats.

The company operates 58 Amazon Fresh grocery stores, 14 Go convenience locations, and more than 500 Whole Foods Markets.

Where those stores primarily focus on food, the new plan calls for a much broader range of merchandise, such as housewares or apparel, that can complement grocery shoppers’ carts.

As traditional retailers like Walmart and Target ramp up their e-commerce efforts, Amazon is taking a few pages from the brick-and-mortar playbook as well.

This expansion comes a month after Business Insider reported that Amazon has been developing a “rush” pickup service, which would allow shoppers to collect their orders at Amazon-owned stores within an hour.

The company is also testing a fulfillment-only store concept that it expects to bring 30-minute delivery to customers in Seattle and Philadelphia.

• Stuart Brown is stepping down as head of trading at $55 billion hedge fund Viking Global.
• Brown has worked at the hedge fund for 18 years, according to his profile on the firm’s website.
• The hedge fund was up only 8.6%, trailing the market and many Tiger Cub peers.

Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen will soon lose another longtime lieutenant.

Stuart Brown, the longtime head of trading for Viking Global, is stepping down from the $55 billion asset manager to take a career break, two people familiar with the move told Business Insider. The firm declined to comment, and Brown could not be reached for comment.

Brown was at the long-running Tiger Cub, a nickname for hedge funds that spun out of late billionaire Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, for 18 years, according to his bio on the firm’s website. He joined the firm after working on the corporate credit sales desk at Credit Suisse.

One of the people close to the firm said Brown’s official departure date is not yet known. Brown will help the firm during a transition period, this person said.

Viking has lost several senior members of its team in recent years, which now numbers 275 employees, according to the firm’s site.

From the investing side, Ning Jin, the former chief investment officer of Viking, left the firm in August 2024 to start his own fund, Avantyr Capital.

On the operations side of the business, the firm’s former general counsel, Andrew Genser, joined former Viking portfolio manager Divya Nettimi’s fund, Avala Global, last summer. Viking’s director of recruiting, Kevin Curtis, moved to Bobby Jain’s eponymous fund in September 2025, and the firm’s former investor relations head, Savina Boyadjieva, just started as a partner at Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital.

While Viking’s peers include long-short equity funds such as Tiger Global, Coatue, Lone Pine, D1, Maverick, and others, the firm is not as tech-heavy as some of the other Tiger Cubs. In some years, such as 2022, this can help the manager, but when mega-stocks like Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft drive a bulk of the market’s returns, it can lead to Viking missing out on some gains.

Last year was an example of this: Viking returned less than 9% on the year in its flagship fund, a person close to the manager said, less than the S&P 500 index.

• Paramount Skydance’s streaming product and tech chief, Vibol Hou, is leaving at the end of January.
• Hou spoke about the move in a Slack message to colleagues.
• Paramount is in a period of transition under its ambitious new CEO, David Ellison.

The head of Paramount Skydance’s streaming product and tech is leaving the company, Business Insider has learned.

Vibol Hou told colleagues in the company’s streaming tech Slack channel that he’s leaving Paramount at the end of January.

“After nearly 12 years of exhilarating work pushing our businesses to new heights, it feels like the right time to hand the torch to the next wave of leaders while I take a much-needed pause to rest, focus on my health (including some serious marathon training), and spend more time with my family before I jump into whatever comes next,” Hou wrote in the Slack message, which was viewed by Business Insider.

Hou’s exit has been anticipated within Paramount for months.

In Hou’s Slack message, he referenced a previous memo from Dane Glasgow, Paramount’s chief product officer, that hinted at the move.

“Vibol has expressed interest in exploring other opportunities, and while he will remain in his role with an anticipated transition early next year, we will continue to explore new projects together,” Glasgow wrote in a mid-October email viewed by Business Insider.

Hou was at Paramount or its subsidiaries for over a decade, including six years at its free streamer, Pluto TV. In that span, Paramount went through several corporate changes, from a ViacomCBS merger to the Paramount Skydance merger that closed in the summer of 2025.

“What we’ve built together across Pluto TV, CBS All Access/Paramount+, and Network Streaming was never easy,” Hou wrote in the Slack message. “But we built these products from the ground up, in tough environments that didn’t necessarily believe in our vision, with limited resources and non-existent technology where we often had to build our own, and under constant pressure to deliver.”

Hou’s Slack message was received warmly, with 118 “care” emojis, 67 classic “red heart” emojis, and 43 “thank you” emojis, among other signals of support as of early Thursday afternoon.

Since Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison took over in early August, he’s made several noteworthy moves, like landing UFC rights in the US and hiring Bari Weiss to lead CBS News.

Ellison is now focused on buying Warner Bros. Discovery, which has rejected its takeover offer eight times.

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read Hou’s Slack message to colleagues announcing the move:

@channel Team,

As Dane shared in his note, I’ll be transitioning out of my role and leaving the company at the end of January. After nearly 12 years of exhilarating work pushing our businesses to new heights, it feels like the right time to hand the torch to the next wave of leaders while I take a much-needed pause to rest, focus on my health (including some serious marathon training), and spend more time with my family before I jump into whatever comes next.

What we’ve built together across Pluto TV, CBS All Access/Paramount+, and Network Streaming was never easy — but we built these products from the ground up, in tough environments that didn’t necessarily believe in our vision, with limited resources and non-existent technology where we often had to build our own, and under constant pressure to deliver. Yet again and again, this team showed grit, creativity, and passion. Whether you came from Pluto or another part of Streaming, the story is the same: we took on impossible problems and innovated our way through.

The culture we live — being curious about everything, feeling that hunger to solve problems, caring deeply for others, iterating constantly, and innovating in everything we do — belongs to all of you now. You should be proud of what you’ve achieved, and you should be confident that this is a team that can handle anything thrown its way.

As to the future, I have a lot of confidence in Dane and the vision and strategic pillars he’s laid out for the year ahead. They set a strong foundation for where this organization can go over the next several years, and I’m excited to see what you all do together under his leadership.

I plan to hold my last open office hours next Friday so anyone who wants to drop in, ask questions, or just say hello/goodbye has a space to do that together. In the meantime, if you’d like to stay in touch beyond my time here, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.

Serving alongside you has been one of the great privileges of my life, and I’ll be proudly cheering you on as you write the next chapter together.

Boldly go, always. ❤️

Vibol

• My last name is Mesa, which means “table” in English.
• I joke that my name means I was destined to work in the hospitality industry.
• I was afraid of dining alone in public, but now I’ve learned to enjoy it.

It’s no coincidence that my last name, Mesa, translates to “table.” I believe I was born to work in the hospitality industry, and my passion for hosting people was nurtured from a young age.

Growing up in the Dominican Republic with my maternal grandparents not only introduced me to an immaculate home but also a beautifully decorated dining table. My grandmother took pride in creating bright floral arrangements, polishing silverware, and making name cards with magic markers. She always had a smile on her face while doing these tasks.

Our table seated eight people, but it was always set for seven guests. I was confused and asked her why she did that. “I always leave an unmarked place setting in case we get a surprise visitor so that they can join us,” she explained. And someone always showed up.

I started hosting dinners

I spent my formative years between the Dominican Republic and New York City, but I always dreamed of living in California. Eventually, I decided to move to the city by the bay, San Francisco.

Once I settled into a routine and had some spare time, I realized I needed to make friends. That’s when I started hosting my “California Caribbean” themed dinner parties for out-of-town guests and startup businesses through a travel company. My journey began in July 2015, when I submitted a 30-second video showcasing my home and providing a brief explanation of why I would be a good host. I shared pictures of previous gatherings.

A week later, I received an invitation to “throw a demo event” as part of my audition. I passed the test. The idea of going to a stranger’s home to eat dinner may sound odd to some, but the communal table is not a new concept. During the French Revolution, the trend was “table d’hote,” where guests sat at a large table to enjoy a set menu with wine.

I met new people

There was an element of magic to the connections made at my dinner parties, where I hosted groups of people whom I normally wouldn’t have a chance to meet. Every guest was a surprise.

My perception of borders was torn, allowing me to cook and share stories with people of different nationalities, races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I did this for almost eight years. I have countless pictures of the groups, my table settings, and, of course, the food. However, my fondest memories are captured in my guestbook, where I have entries in over 20 languages, along with messages and drawings from guests expressing their excitement and gratitude for the experiences I created for them.

I moved back to New York

The aftermath of COVID not only restructured our world, but also our personal lives. It shone a spotlight on both the positive and negative aspects of the people closest to us, and I decided to end an almost 11-year relationship with my housemate.

Going back to New York felt like the best for me, so I could restart, refresh, and strategize my next steps. Settling back was like an earthquake going from west to east. I lived in a communal house to save money while interviewing for work. Most of my closest friends had moved to other states for relationships, work, or both. It was no longer my hometown, but my new home in New York.

The hardest part about moving back is what I call the “Obstacle Course of Getting People Together.” Every person is busy, and time waits for no one. Scheduling a meal with friends in New York City can feel impossible. This is when I confronted my fear of dining alone. I didn’t want to be perceived as “Pity, Party of One.”

I learned to love dining alone

When I made my first solo reservation, I made sure I was prepared with my “Me, Myself, and I Kit.” This includes the charger for my smartphone, two books, my journal, and my composition notebook, where I keep my to-do lists.

Eating alone can be a positive experience for self-reflection, mindfulness, and the pleasure of one’s own company.

Eating alone has taught me different things. For example, how to decompress — being around a lot of people can be exhausting.

I’ve also received the gift of self-reflection: the ability to stop, observe yourself, and examine the choices you’re making. And I realized the person who judges me the most is me.

I get to be productive when eating alone. I can map out all my bills, appointments, and goals I need to schedule, pay, and plan for.

When we share a meal with others, the pressure to conform to social expectations can be overwhelming. However, eating alone offers a unique moment to savor each bite of food at one’s own pace. It allows me to savor the mix of flavors and textures without the distraction of other people’s opinions, giving me the freedom to take as much time as I desire, because I’ve earned it and am paying for it.

• I’ve been using Brick, a $59 gadget designed to help cut down on phone screen time.
• It acts like a physical key. You can only unblock chosen apps by tapping your phone on the Brick device.
• I started using Brick in January 2025, and it’s helped break my TikTok habit.

I’m unfortunately among the millions of people who have become hooked on TikTok, losing countless hours of productivity to 30-second clips of soup recipes I’ve yet to make, hair-growing products I’ve yet to buy, and gua sha tutorials I’ll likely never try.

Tired of spending my one wild and precious life staring at a screen, I decided to make a change. And thanks to Brick, a $59 gadget designed to block phone apps, I’ve actually been able to follow through.

A physical key to becoming distraction-free

As my weekly screen time report became increasingly alarming, I attempted to fight back by setting a daily one-hour limit for Instagram and TikTok on my iPhone. When I realized the limit could be bypassed with the click of a button, the software was quickly rendered completely useless.

This same struggle is what led TJ Driver and Zach Nasgowitz to create Brick, which allows you to temporarily block chosen apps and their notifications via a physical device that comes in the form of a 3D printed, 2-inch by 2-inch square magnet. You can still access the apps you need throughout the day — like texts, photos, or Google Maps — but Brick makes it harder to give in to the temptation of a quick social media dopamine hit.

“With other solutions, the ‘key’ that re-enables distractions is always present,” the Brick website explains. “Brick allows you to leave that key behind, turning your phone into a new, distraction-free device until you return.”

How does Brick work?

Setting up Brick couldn’t be simpler. After downloading the corresponding app and creating an account with my email, I activated my Brick by tapping the top of my phone on the lightweight square. A single Brick can be used with multiple iPhones — unlike your Netflix account, there’s no limit — so my fiancé was able to connect his iPhone to it as well.

I was then prompted to allow screen time access to Brick, which gives it the ability to block and unblock apps on the iPhone, and create my first “Mode.” You can create different modes to block different apps. I made one titled “Get to work!” and chose to block Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

You can activate these modes through the app or by physically tapping your phone on the square. However, you can only deactivate the block by tapping your phone against the Brick.

A swift change in habits

The very first day I used Brick, I was forced to come to terms with how hooked I’d become to social media. I caught myself unconsciously picking up my phone multiple times an hour to check Instagram or TikTok. It was a major wake-up call.

So I became diligent about tapping my phone to the little Brick every morning, leaving the square in my fiancé’s office so I wouldn’t be tempted. The effect was almost immediate.

I was barely picking up my phone during work hours and feeling far less drained after each day, no doubt thanks in part to quieting the constant stream of notifications. Even when I wasn’t using Brick on the weekends, I was checking TikTok and Instagram way less.

I still have plenty of work to do when it comes to untethering myself from the grips of social media, but Brick is definitely helping.

In fact, I’m using it right now.