The Story of Jensen Huang, Nvidia's founder and CEO

If you’ve paid attention to artificial intelligence news in recent years, chances are you’ve heard of Nvidia. The Santa Clara-based chipmaker has risen to be one of the giants in AI, providing high-demand graphics processing units (GPUs) used by tech giants and startups to train models. Leading Nvidia is CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang, whose vision and stewardship have taken both the company and his own fortune to great heights.

In 2024, Huang finally joined Forbes’ ranking of the world’s 10 richest people, marketing a skyrocketing business that Nvidia has seen in the AI arms race.

Early Life and Education

Jensen Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963. He split his childhood between Taiwan and Thailand before his parents sent him—along with his brother — to the United States to live with an uncle in Tacoma, Wash. Huang later went on to Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky. His family moved to Oregon after his parents immigrated to the US, and Huang completed high school at the age of 16.

Huang received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and a master’s in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Notably, he spent the summer working at 15, washing dishes, bussing tables, and serving customers at a Denny’s in Portland — an impartial early lesson on the value of hard work that would later pay off.

Before establishing Nvidia, Huang cut his teeth at some of the biggest names in tech. He spent 1984 to 1985 at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and then from 1985 to 1993 at LSI Logic, learning about computer chip design and semiconductors.

Founding Nvidia: From Idea to AI Giant

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 with Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky. The idea for Nvidia was born at a Denny’s in Northern California, not the high-tech innovation factory one might expect of such a legendary company.

In 1999, NVIDIA introduced the GeForce 256 as “the world’s first GPU,” changing computer gaming and professional graphics forever—and eventually, AI. Today, Nvidia is at the center of a generative AI boom, providing the chips that tech companies around the world use to train powerful AI models.

The company quickly found itself in high demand while the appetite for AI grew. By 2023, Nvidia had reached the trillion-dollar-company club, and its chips had become a must-have for AI developers, research labs, and cloud providers near and far.

Huang’s Leadership Style

Jensen Huang is widely recognized for his distinctive management style:

He manages approximately 60 direct reports and often gives feedback publicly.
He sends hundreds of emails a day and is deeply hands-on, with former employees describing him as meticulous, demanding, and attentive to detail.
Huang is a self-professed workaholic, regularly logging 14-hour days and even working on holidays.

Huang is also for the personal declaration of devotions. He has Nvidia’s logo tattooed on his shoulder, a mark of devotion that he said he would get when the company’s stock broke $100. His iconic black leather jacket has also become a standard part of his wardrobe, which he often wears during product announcements and keynotes.

The latter, however, kept a much lower public profile than Huang. Curtis Priem, the CTO of Nvidia from 1993 to 2003, pretty much faded away after he sold his shares and turned to becoming a philanthropist. Chris Malachowsky remains a senior technology leader.

Personal Life

Huang met his wife, Lori, while attending Oregon State University. The couple has two children:

Madison Huang, director of product and technical marketing at Nvidia.
Spencer Huang, product line manager at Nvidia.

Interestingly, Huang is also a distant cousin of Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, Nvidia’s longtime competitor in the chip industry. Huang resides in Silicon Valley, close to Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

Career Highlights and Achievements

Since Nvidia’s inception, Huang has served as president, CEO, and a board member, guiding the company through pivotal moments in tech history. His accolades include:

Election to the National Academy of Engineering (2024).
The Robert N. Noyce Award from the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Recognition from The Economist as the world’s best CEO, Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year, and inclusion in TIME’s 100 most influential people list.

As of June 2025, Huang owned roughly 3.77% of Nvidia’s outstanding shares, making him the largest individual shareholder. His net worth, according to Forbes, stands at $165.4 billion.

NVIDIA and the AI Boom

Under Huang’s leadership, Nvidia experienced a blockbuster 2025. The AI boom propelled the company to a $5-trillion market cap on October 29, 2025, making it the first company in history to achieve this valuation.

Despite this success, Huang has had to navigate:

Growing competition from AI hyperscalers exploring alternative chips.
Regulatory pressures and increased scrutiny of AI technology.
Concerns about an AI market bubble.

Huang has candidly discussed the pressures of managing expectations. In an internal meeting following a better-than-expected quarter in November 2025, he noted:

“If we delivered a bad quarter, it is evidence that there’s an AI bubble. If we delivered a great quarter, we are fueling the AI bubble.”

Looking Ahead

Jensen Huang still leads Nvidia with unparalleled vision and aggression. That foresight of sensing the opportunity in AI chips, along with his relentless work ethic and strategic risk-taking has made Nvidia a key player both in gaming and AI. It isn’t that much is known about the company’s succession planning, but whatever happens, Huang’s impact will persist, and Nvidia will continue to play a major role in global tech innovation.

The Story of Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s founder and CEO