How did Jensen Huang turn Nvidia into one of the world’s biggest companies?
Source: Exame.com
With a current net worth of over $100 billion, Jensen Huang is synonymous with record-breaking success in software technology. Some would call him and his company, Nvidia, the founders and leaders of the artificial intelligence boom. Mark Zuckerberg once referred to him as “Taylor Swift, but for tech.” There’s no one in tech who hasn’t heard of Nvidia’s staggering 262% revenue growth in early 2024.
Personal Background & Immigration to the US
The billionaire had humble beginnings. He was born in Tainan City, Taiwan. When he was five, his family moved to Thailand, and when he was nine, he and his brother were sent to live with his uncle in Tacoma, Washington. His parents joined them years later, and the family settled in Oregon, where Huang worked at a local Denny’s diner as a busboy and a waiter. He graduated from high school two years early and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and a master’s degree from Stanford.
Professional Background & Achievements
In 1993, at just 30 years old, Huang cofounded Nvidia during a meeting at a roadside Denny’s in San Jose, California, becoming its president and CEO.
As of 2024, Huang has been the CEO of Nvidia for three decades, a tenure the Wall Street Journal says is “almost unheard of in fast-moving Silicon Valley.” He is so famous in his home country of Taiwan that the media there coined the term “Jensanity” to refer to the phenomenon. In June 2024, Nvidia became the most valuable company in the S&P 500, with a value of $3.3 trillion. As of September 2024, Nvidia is the third-most valuable company in the index, after Apple and Microsoft.
In addition to incredible success in the tech industry, Huang gives back to his communities with millions of dollars of education-based donations to his alma maters as well as to schools in China and Taiwan.
Contributions to the US Economy
Nvidia’s success parallels Huang’s long list of personal achievements. As early as 1999, Ernst & Young named him the year’s top entrepreneur in high technology. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University, and in 2019 Harvard Business Review named him the CEO of the year. Among many other accolades, Time magazine has repeatedly named him among its Time 100 List of Influential People, including in 2024. And The Economist named him the best CEO of 2023.
