Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang (黃仁勳)
Title:
Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer
NVIDIA Corporation
Summary
Jensen Huang is a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur, engineer, and the co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, the world’s leading company in graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI hardware acceleration. Under his leadership, NVIDIA has evolved from a niche gaming graphics company into a semiconductor powerhouse at the center of AI, data center, and automotive computing revolutions.
A charismatic and visionary leader, Huang is widely credited for NVIDIA’s long-term strategic bets, including CUDA, AI acceleration, and high-performance computing (HPC). As of 2025, he is one of the most influential and wealthiest tech CEOs in the world, with NVIDIA briefly becoming the world’s most valuable company in June 2024.
Early Life & Education
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Born: February 17, 1963 in Tainan, Taiwan
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Emigrated: Moved to Thailand, then to the United States as a child
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Education:
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B.S. in Electrical Engineering – Oregon State University (1984)
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M.S. in Electrical Engineering – Stanford University (1992)
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Career Timeline
| Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Co-founds NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem | |
| 1999 | Introduces the GeForce 256, the world’s first “GPU” | |
| 2006 | Launches CUDA, a parallel computing platform | |
| 2012 | Starts focusing on AI and deep learning acceleration | |
| 2016 | Releases Pascal GPU architecture, optimized for AI training | |
| 2020 | Announces NVIDIA A100, powering AI and HPC worldwide | |
| 2022 | Launches H100 Hopper architecture and Grace CPU | |
| 2023 | Unveils Grace Hopper Superchip, targeting AI & supercomputing | |
| 2024 | NVIDIA passes $3 trillion market cap, leading AI infrastructure revolution | |
| 2025 | Announces Blackwell GPU, foundation of next-gen AI compute |
Major Achievements
NVIDIA’s Transformation Under His Leadership:
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Gaming: Originated as a gaming GPU company, still dominant via GeForce.
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AI Leadership: Bet early on deep learning, enabling today’s AI boom.
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Data Centers: Grew from $1B to $50B+ revenue in data centers in under a decade.
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Automotive: Pioneered autonomous vehicle compute platforms (NVIDIA Drive).
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Omniverse & 3D Simulation: Leading digital twin and industrial metaverse development.
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Supercomputing: Powers many of the world’s top AI training systems.
Technologies Pushed:
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CUDA: First general-purpose GPU computing platform.
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Tensor Cores: Hardware units designed for AI matrix math.
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Grace CPU: NVIDIA’s in-house Arm-based CPU architecture.
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Blackwell: Successor to Hopper GPUs, designed for trillion-parameter models.
Leadership Style
| Trait | Description |
|---|---|
| Visionary | Accurately anticipated the AI explosion over a decade ago. |
| Technical | Hands-on with product architecture and performance metrics. |
| Charismatic | Highly influential public speaker; signature leather jacket. |
| Bold | Makes long-term bets (e.g., CUDA, Mellanox, Arm). |
| Perfectionist | Known to be extremely detail-oriented on product execution. |
Recognition & Wealth
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Net Worth (2025): Estimated at $90B+, depending on NVIDIA stock.
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Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year
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TIME 100 Most Influential People
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IEEE Founders Medal (2024)
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Frequently cited as a top 5 global tech CEO, alongside Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Elon Musk.
Personal Life
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Married to Lori Huang, a philanthropist and NVIDIA supporter.
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Known for his signature black leather jacket and energetic keynote presentations.
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Lives in Silicon Valley, frequently visits Taiwan and NVIDIA’s global sites.
Legacy
Jensen Huang has redefined the semiconductor industry by placing NVIDIA at the heart of the AI revolution. Through a combination of visionary product design, ecosystem thinking (CUDA, NVLink, DGX), and market discipline, he built NVIDIA into one of the most strategically critical companies in the world.
He is likely to be remembered not just as a successful tech CEO, but as one of the semiconductor industry’s most transformative leaders, alongside legends like Morris Chang (TSMC) and Andy Grove (Intel).
Notable Quotes
On Artificial Intelligence and the Future
“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time.”
“We’re at the iPhone moment of AI.”
— Describing how generative AI is reaching a consumer and developer inflection point like the original iPhone.
“Every company will be an AI company.”
“Software is eating the world, but AI is going to eat software.”
“The future is not about data centers. It’s about AI factories.”
— Highlighting the shift from traditional compute infrastructure to purpose-built AI compute clusters.
On Accelerated Computing and Moore’s Law
“Accelerated computing is the only path forward.”
“Moore’s Law has ended. Accelerated computing is what comes next.”
“We no longer scale by shrinking transistors. We scale by inventing new computing paradigms.”
“We are inventing the next era of computing at every level — from architecture to networking to AI models.”
On Strategy and Long-Term Thinking
“We bet the company on CUDA when nobody believed in GPU computing.”
“Invention is about having the courage to do something that hasn’t been done before, and sticking with it long enough for it to matter.”
“The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise.”
“Start with the hard stuff. If you survive it, you’ll be ready for anything.”
On Leadership and Culture
“I want to build a company where engineers are heroes.”
“You must do what others are unwilling to do, and keep doing it long after they’ve given up.”
“Leadership is not about power. It’s about purpose, passion, and perseverance.”
“What we do is difficult, but that’s what makes it worthwhile.”
On NVIDIA’s Origin in Gaming
“We started with gaming because gamers are the hardest customers in the world.”
“The GPU was born for games, but it was reborn for AI.”
Jensen Huang’s Philosophical Side
“The work of engineers is invisible. But without it, nothing works.”
“True innovation happens when you imagine what could be, not just improve what is.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Beijing:
On Xiaomi: “I’d love to buy a Xiaomi car.”
On Huawei: “Anyone who underestimates Huawei is extremely naive.”
On Apple: “Their AI has its rhythm.”
On DeepSeek: “An undeniable technological breakthrough.”
On China’s AI future: “Everything is in place; success is inevitable.”
On China’s robotics: “The outlook is very promising — no surprise at all.”
On China’s supply chain: “Incredibly complex and extensive, with a leading level of technology.”
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