I looked into how NVIDIA employees reacted and found something intriguing: tens of thousands of employees, and almost all of them stayed silent.

When a boss gets into this much trouble, the anonymous forums at most companies would already be buzzing with complaints, leaks, people watching the drama unfold—you name it. But if you look through the forums where Silicon Valley engineers gather, NVIDIA employees’ discussions are remarkably restrained.

Why? First, consider a fact that’s been publicly reported: as the stock price has soared over the years, NVIDIA has made a large number of its empl