Jensen Huang - NVIDIA
| Jensen Huang | |
|---|---|
| 250px | |
| Born | February 17, 1963 Taipei, Taiwan |
| Nationality | Taiwanese American |
| Education | Oregon State University (BS) Stanford University (MS) |
| Occupation | Businessman Electrical engineer Philanthropist |
| Known for | Co-founding Nvidia |
| Title | President and CEO of Nvidia (1993–present) |
| Spouse | Lori Huang (m. 1985) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Lisa Su (cousin) |
| Awards | IEEE Founders Medal (2020) VinFuture Prize (2024) Edison Award (2024) Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2025) |
Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang (黃仁勳, Huáng Rénxūn; born February 17, 1963) is a Taiwanese-American businessman, electrical engineer, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nvidia, a leading semiconductor and AI company.
In 2025, Forbes estimated Huang's net worth at US$144 billion, making him the ninth richest person in the world.
Early life and education
Huang was born in Taipei and raised in Tainan, Taiwan, before moving to Thailand. He studied at Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok. At age nine, he and his brother were sent to the United States, living in Tacoma, Washington, and later attending school in Oneida, Kentucky.
Huang's family eventually settled in Beaverton, Oregon, where he attended Aloha High School. He graduated at age sixteen and worked night shifts at Denny's. He earned a BS in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1984, and an MS from Stanford University in 1992.
Career
Early work
Huang began his career designing microprocessors at AMD, then moved to LSI Logic. There, he co-developed the GX graphics engine and met his future Nvidia co-founders, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem.
Nvidia
In 1993, Huang co-founded Nvidia with Malachowsky and Priem. The idea was born at a Denny's restaurant in San Jose. The name “Nvidia” was derived from the Latin word invidia (envy).
Huang became CEO from inception and has led Nvidia for over three decades. He helped secure critical funding and steered the company through early struggles. The launch of the RIVA 128 GPU in 1997 was Nvidia’s first major commercial success.
Huang positioned Nvidia as a leader in GPUs, high-performance computing, and later, artificial intelligence. The company grew rapidly in the 2020s and became the first to reach a $4 trillion market cap in 2025.
Leadership style and public image
Known for a hands-on, informal leadership style, Huang avoids using a personal office. He became a global tech icon in the AI era, especially in Taiwan, where fans refer to his visits as “Jensanity.”
Huang's law
Huang's law is an observation by Jensen Huang that GPU performance is increasing faster than CPU performance — more than doubling every two years, outpacing Moore’s law.
At Nvidia's 2018 GPU Technology Conference, Huang stated that Nvidia’s GPUs had become 25 times faster over five years, compared to Moore’s law's predicted tenfold increase. He credited this to improvements in architecture, AI, and software integration.
Some critics dispute Huang’s law as overly optimistic, but many in the industry acknowledge that accelerators like GPUs offer performance scaling not seen in conventional CPUs.
Philanthropy
Huang has supported major philanthropic initiatives, including:
- Donating $30 million to Stanford University for the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center.
- Donating $2 million to Oneida Baptist Institute to build Huang Hall.
- Donating $50 million to Oregon State University for an AI and supercomputing institute.
- Supporting educational efforts after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China.
Awards and honors
- 1999: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Technology)
- 2002: Daniel J. Epstein Engineering Management Award
- 2004: Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award
- 2005: Alumni Fellow, Oregon State University
- 2009: Honorary Doctorate, Oregon State University
- 2020: IEEE Founders Medal
- 2021, 2024: Time 100
- 2023: Time 100 AI
- 2024: Edison Award, VinFuture Prize
- 2025: Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
Personal life
Huang met his wife, Lori, while studying at Oregon State University. They have two children: Spencer and Madison, who both work at Nvidia. The family resides in Los Altos Hills, California, with additional homes in San Francisco and Wailea, Hawaii.
He is related to Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and holds dual Taiwanese and American citizenship. He is fluent in Taiwanese Hokkien.
Relationships
Huang maintains relationships with industry figures including Morris Chang of TSMC and Charles Liang of Supermicro. Nvidia and Supermicro regularly collaborate on hardware using Nvidia chips.