Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: Career and Net Worth

Jensen Huang is the founder and CEO of Nvidia, a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing. He has led the company through a historic rise driven by the demand for artificial intelligence chips.

Key details regarding his background and the company's trajectory include:

• Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963 and moved to the United States as a child.
• He co-founded Nvidia in 1993 at a Denny's restaurant in California.
• In October 2025, Nvidia became the first company to reach a $5 trillion market valuation.
• As of June 2025, Huang owns approximately 3.77% of the company's outstanding shares.

His leadership style is characterized by high expectations and a hands-on approach to management. He remains the central figure in the company's operations and strategic direction.

Jensen Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963. He spent his early childhood in Taiwan and Thailand before his parents sent him and his brother to the United States to live with an uncle in Tacoma, Washington.

He attended the Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky. After his parents immigrated to the US, the family settled in Oregon. Huang graduated from high school at the young age of 16.

He pursued higher education in engineering, earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and a master's degree in the same field from Stanford University.

Huang entered the workforce early, getting his first job at age 15. He worked at a Denny's in Portland, washing dishes and bussing tables. Before establishing Nvidia, he gained industry experience at two major semiconductor firms:

• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) (1984–1985)
• LSI Logic (1985–1993)

In 1993, Huang and his co-founders, Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky, conceived the idea for Nvidia at a Denny's in northern California. The company has since become a household name in the technology sector.

Nvidia achieved a significant technological milestone in 1999 with the release of the GeForce 256. The company marketed this product as the world's first graphics processing unit, or GPU.

Today, Nvidia is instrumental in the generative AI industry, supplying the high-demand chips used to train AI models. This demand propelled the company to join the trillion-dollar market cap club in 2023. By October 2025, Nvidia became the first company in the world to cross the $5 trillion market cap valuation.

The company's other founders have taken different paths. Curtis Priem served as Chief Technical Officer until 2003 and has since focused on philanthropy and personal investments. Chris Malachowsky remains at the company as a senior technology executive.

Jensen Huang is known for a unique and demanding management style. He skips traditional one-on-one meetings and manages approximately 60 direct reports directly as CEO. He is known to provide feedback publicly and sends hundreds of emails to staff daily.

Former and current employees describe him as a hands-on boss with meticulous attention to detail who values owning up to mistakes. Huang admits to workaholic tendencies, often logging 14-hour days and working on holidays.

He has adopted several personal symbols of his dedication to Nvidia:

• A tattoo of the Nvidia logo on his shoulder, acquired when the stock price hit $100 per share.
• A signature black leather jacket he wears during keynotes and product launches.

Regarding his personal life, Huang met his wife, Lori, while attending Oregon State University. They have two children, Madison and Spencer, both of whom work at Nvidia. He also owns a home in Silicon Valley, where Nvidia is headquartered. Interestingly, Huang is a distant cousin of Lisa Su, the CEO of rival chip giant AMD.

In 2025, Huang led Nvidia through a record-breaking year, but the company also faced significant headwinds. As the AI boom continued, Nvidia navigated increased competition from AI hyperscalers exploring alternative chips, as well as regulatory scrutiny.

There were growing concerns regarding an AI bubble. In an internal meeting following a better-than-expected quarter in November 2025, Huang addressed this pressure.

He stated: "If we delivered a bad quarter, it is evidence there's an AI bubble. If we delivered a great quarter, we are fueling the AI bubble."

Despite these challenges, Huang remains the company's largest individual shareholder. As of June 2025, he owned roughly 3.77% of the company's outstanding shares. His net worth was estimated at $165.4 billion in 2024.

Huang continues to hold the positions of president, CEO, and board member. He has not publicly announced succession plans. His accolades include being elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024 and receiving the Semiconductor Industry Association's Robert N. Noyce Award.