The AI arms race has been good business for Nvidia, which supplies the highly in-demand chips used by many Big Tech giants and startups alike to train AI models.
That’s also been good news for Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang. In 2024, he shot into Forbes’ list of the world’s 10 wealthiest people as business boomed for Nvidia.
Huang and fellow Nvidia founders Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky planted the seed for Nvidia at a Denny’s in northern California in 1993. Today, it’s a household name in the AI industry, and Huang is the billionaire businessman leading it.
Here’s a look at Jensen Huang’s career rise and background.
Early life, education
Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963. He spent some of his childhood there and in Thailand before his parents sent Huang and his brother to the US to live with an uncle in Tacoma, Washington.
His uncle sent him to Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky but after Huang’s parents immigrated to the US, the family lived in Oregon. He graduated from high school at age 16 before going to college. Huang got his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Huang got his first job at 15. He washed dishes and bussed and waited tables at a Denny’s in Portland.
Before founding Nvidia, Huang worked at computer chip manufacturer LSI Logic from 1985 to 1993 and at semiconductor company AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, from 1984 to 1985.
Founding Nvidia, leading company as CEO
At a Denny’s in 1993, Huang and his Nvidia co-founders, Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky, came up with the idea that would eventually lead to Nvidia’s creation.
In 1999, the company released the GeForce 256, which it called the first graphics processing unit, or GPU.
Today, Nvidia is instrumental in the generative AI industry, supplying the coveted chips that tech companies use to train AI models.
Interest in Nvidia’s chips amid the AI boom has pushed the company to new heights.
In one notable milestone, Nvidia’s market cap passed $3 trillion in 2024 to briefly overtake Apple as the world’s most valuable company.
Huang’s net worth is $105.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Huang’s management and leadership style sees him skipping 1-on-1 meetings, managing around 60 direct reports as CEO, giving feedback publicly, and sending his staff hundreds of emails a day.
Current and former Nvidia employees previously told BI that Huang is a hands-on boss with high expectations and meticulous attention to detail who values owning up to your mistakes.
Huang has said he has workaholic tendencies, logging 14-hour days and working on holidays.
He has a tattoo of Nvidia’s logo on his shoulder, which he agreed to get when the company’s stock price hit $100 per share.
Huang’s black leather jacket has also become a famous part of his wardrobe — a staple piece he often wears when giving keynotes or showing off a new product.
Nvidia’s other founders, meanwhile, have stayed further out of the spotlight than Huang.
Priem was Nvidia’s chief technical officer from 1993 to 2003, and Malachowsky is a senior technology executive at Nvidia.
After Nvidia went public in 1999, Priem put more than three-quarters of his Nvidia shares into his Priem Family Foundation and by 2006, he’d sold the rest of his shares. He was left with a fortune of roughly $30 million, Forbes estimated in 2023.
Jensen Huang’s family
Huang met his now-wife, Lori, while still attending Oregon State University. The couple share two children: Madison Huang is a director of product and technical marketing at Nvidia, and Spencer Huang is a product line manager at the company.
Huang and Lisa Su, CEO of Nvidia’s rival chip giant AMD, are distant cousins.
He has a home in Silicon Valley, as Nvidia is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Nvidia and Jensen Huang’s future
Huang has been president, CEO, and a member of Nvidia’s board of directors since the company’s creation. He and Nvidia haven’t said much about succession planning.
He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024 and has received the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award.
In past years, The Economist has named Huang the world’s best CEO, Fortune has dubbed him its Businessperson of the Year, and TIME has included him in its yearly list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
As of March 2024, Huang owned roughly 3.79% of the company’s outstanding shares, according to a proxy statement. He is Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder.
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