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Jensen Huang

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The native form of this personal name is Huang Jen-hsun. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
In this Taiwanese name, the surname is Huang.

Jensen Huang
黃仁勳
Huang in 2023
Born
Huang Jen-hsun

(1963-02-17) February 17, 1963 (age 61)
Tainan, Taiwan
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • electrical engineer
  • philanthropist
Known forCo-founding Nvidia
TitlePresident and CEO of Nvidia
SpouseLori Huang
Children2[1]
RelativesLisa Su (cousin)
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese黃仁勳
Simplified Chinese黄仁勋
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáng Rénxūn
Bopomofoㄏㄨㄤˊ ㄖㄣˊㄒㄩㄣ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhHwang Renshiun
Wade–GilesHuang2 Jen2-hsün1
IPA[xwǎŋ ɻə̌n.ɕýn]
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingWong4 Jan4-fan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJN̂g Jîn-hun
Tâi-lôN̂g Jîn-hun
Websitenvidia.com
Signature

Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang[a] (Chinese: 黃仁勳; pinyin: Huáng Rénxūn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: N̂g Jîn-hun; born February 17, 1963) is an American businessman, electrical engineer, and philanthropist who is the founder, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nvidia, the world's largest semiconductor company.[3] As of December 2024, Forbes estimated Huang's net worth at $118.2 billion, making him the 10th richest person in the world.[4]

The son of Taiwanese American immigrants, Huang moved from Taiwan to the US in his childhood. After receiving a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, he co-founded Nvidia in 1993 at the age of 30. In June 2024, Nvidia became the largest company in the world by market capitalization.[5]

Early life and education

[edit]

Huang was born in Tainan, Taiwan, on February 17, 1963, the son of Huang Hsing-tai, a chemical engineer at an oil refinery, and Lo Tsai-hsiu, a schoolteacher.[3][6] His family moved to Thailand when he was five years old. While in Bangkok, Huang attended Ruamrudee International School.[7] When he was nine, he and his older brother were sent to the United States to live with an uncle in Tacoma, Washington. When he was ten, he lived in the boys' dormitory with his brother at Oneida Baptist Institute while attending a separate public school, Oneida Elementary school, in Oneida, Kentucky—his uncle had mistaken what was actually a religious reform academy for a prestigious boarding school.[8] Huang's roommate at Oneida was illiterate and in exchange for being taught how to read, he taught Huang how to bench press.[8]

Several years later, their parents also moved to the United States and settled in Oregon and the brothers moved back to live with them.[8] Huang skipped two years and graduated at sixteen from Aloha High School in Aloha, Oregon.[9][8] While growing up in Oregon in the 1980s,[8] Huang got his first job at a local Denny's restaurant, where he worked as a busboy and waiter.[10]

Huang graduated from Oregon State University in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He would later receive a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1992.[11][12]

Career

[edit]
Huang meeting with Narendra Modi in 2023

After graduating from university, Huang was the director of CoreWare at LSI Logic and as microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).[13] In 1993, aged 30, he co-founded Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem and became its CEO and president.[8][14] The three men founded the company in a meeting at a Denny's roadside diner in East San Jose.[8][15][16] He personally signed Nvidia's original articles of incorporation on April 5, 1993.[2]

As of 2024, Huang has been Nvidia's chief executive for over three decades, a tenure described by The Wall Street Journal as "almost unheard of in fast-moving Silicon Valley".[17] He owns 3.6% of Nvidia's stock, which went public in 1999.[4] He earned US$24.6 million as CEO in 2007, ranking him as the 61st highest paid U.S. CEO by Forbes.[4]

According to Huang, the three co-founders in 1993 had "no idea how" to start a company,[16] "building Nvidia turned out to have been a million times harder" than they expected, and they probably would not have done it if they had realized up front "the pain and suffering [involved] ... the challenges [they were] going to endure, the embarrassment and the shame, and the list of all the things that [would] go wrong."[18] For its first graphics accelerator chips, Nvidia focused on rendering quadrilateral primitives (forward texture mapping) instead of the triangle primitives preferred by its competitors,[8] and barely survived long enough to successfully pivot to triangles only because Sega agreed to keep Nvidia alive with a $5 million investment.[19] By the time the RIVA 128 was released in August 1997 and saved the company, Nvidia was down to one month of payroll.[8] This resulted in the "unofficial company motto": "Our company is thirty days from going out of business."[8] Huang regularly began presentations to Nvidia staff with those words for many years.[8] However, Huang regards the "pain and suffering" of Nvidia's early years as essential to the company's success in later years, because it forced him to become a better leader.[20]

Huang does not keep a fixed office; he roams Nvidia's headquarters and settles temporarily in conference rooms as needed.[21] He prefers to maintain a relatively flat management structure, with around 60 direct reports as of November 2024,[22] on the ground that people reporting directly to him "should be at the top of their game" and "require the least amount of pampering".[23] He does not wear a watch, because as he likes to say, "now is the most important time".[17]

Historically, Huang and Nvidia were well-known only among the gamers and computer graphics experts who were the original intended markets for Nvidia's graphics processing unit (GPU) products. In 2017, a Fortune profile article acknowledged: "If you haven’t heard of Nvidia, you can be forgiven."[21] During the AI boom, Huang's net worth rose rapidly along with the value of Nvidia's stock, from US$3 billion in 2019 to US$90 billion in May 2024.[24] During this same timeframe, Huang became more widely known. In March 2024, Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram with a picture of himself and Huang wearing each other's signature jacket: "He's like Taylor Swift, but for tech".[25]

In June 2024, Nvidia's market capitalization reached US$3 trillion for the first time and Huang's net worth grew to US$100 billion.[26] By then, the news media was using the term "Jensanity" to refer to Huang's celebrity status in Taiwan,[26] and it was compared to the "Linsanity" phenomenon of 2012.[27] Huang was the center of attention at Computex 2024 in Taipei, even though he was not on the official speaking program.[26] Large crowds of fans and paparazzi followed Huang and his family members around every time they appeared in public during their 2024 visit to Taiwan.[26][27]

Philanthropy

[edit]

In 2008, Nvidia contributed funds to establish a classroom at the Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School to cater to 101 elementary and middle school students from regions affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. As a gesture of appreciation for the donation, the students ceremoniously bestowed a red scarf upon Huang, symbolizing their gratitude towards him. In return, Huang gifted kaleidoscopes to the students as a gesture of appreciation during the donation ceremony.[28] In addition, Huang also provided a donation of US$30 million to his former university, Stanford University, in order to establish the Jen-Hsun Huang School of Engineering Center.[29] The building is the second of four that make up Stanford's Science and Engineering Quad.[30]

In 2019, Huang donated $2 million to his former school, Oneida Baptist Institute, for the construction of Huang Hall, a modern facility that serves as a dormitory and classroom building for female students.[31]

In 2022, Huang gifted US$50 million to his alma mater, Oregon State University, as part of a larger US$200 million philanthropic contribution to establish a cutting-edge supercomputing institute on the university campus.[32]

Awards

[edit]
Jensen Huang at SC18
Jensen Huang in Taipei

Personal life

[edit]

While at Oregon State University, Huang met his future wife, Lori Mills, who was his engineering lab partner at the time.[8] They have two children, Spencer Huang (Chinese: 黃勝斌; pinyin: Huáng Shèngbīn) and Madison Huang (Chinese: 黃敏珊; pinyin: Huáng Mǐnshān).[21] Spencer launched a bar in Taipei in 2015 that was honored as one of the top 50 bars in Asia by Forbes. The bar closed in May 2021, and he is currently a product manager at Nvidia. Madison previously worked in the hotel industry and is currently director of product marketing at Nvidia.[1]

The Huang family lived in ordinary middle-class starter homes in San Jose before Nvidia went public in 1999.[56] In 2003, they moved to a larger house in Los Altos Hills, California, and in 2004 they acquired a second home in Wailea, Hawaii.[56] In 2017, a limited liability company reportedly linked to the Huangs acquired a mansion in San Francisco for $38 million.[56]

Huang and AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su are relatives.[57] Huang's mother is the youngest sister of Su's maternal grandfather, making them first cousins, once removed.[58][59] He speaks Taiwanese Hokkien.[60]

Huang and Charles Liang, co-founder of Supermicro, are longtime friends. Both companies were established in 1993 and have collaborated on products, with the latter utilizing Nvidia AI chips in its servers.[61]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Huang consistently capitalizes the second syllable of his given name in legal documents. For example, on April 5, 1993, he signed Nvidia's original articles of incorporation as Jen-Hsun Huang.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "多圖｜黃仁勳混血帥兒曝光！結束台北酒吧 進NVIDIA幫老爸做這事｜壹蘋新聞網". Nextapple (in Chinese (Taiwan)). May 31, 2023. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Huang, Jen-Hsun (April 5, 1993). "Articles of Incorporation of NVidia Corporation". bizfile online. California Secretary of State. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Nimmo, Jamie (July 4, 2020). "'It would be a tragedy if ARM did not move into the new era,' says Nvidia boss Jensen Huang". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on March 23, 2024. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Jensen Huang". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 10, 2024.
  5. ^ Wodecki, Ben (June 19, 2024). "Nvidia Becomes Most Valuable Company in the World, Overtakes Microsoft". AI Business.
  6. ^ Volle, Adam (December 2024). "Jensen Huang: Taiwan-born American entrepreneur". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  7. ^ ไทยคู่ฟ้า ทําเนียบรัฐบาล (December 2, 2024). Mr. Jensen Huang ประธานกรรมการบริหารและผู้ก่อตั้งบริษัท NVIDIA เข้าพบนายกรัฐมนตรี. Retrieved December 4, 2024 – via YouTube. (At 0:27.) This is a video released by the Government of Thailand of a conversation between Huang and Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the current Prime Minister of Thailand, in which Huang mentions that he was raised in Bangkok and attended the Ruamrudee school.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Witt, Stephen (November 27, 2023). "How Jensen Huang's Nvidia Is Powering the A.I. Revolution". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on November 27, 2023. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  9. ^ Rogoway, Mike (June 2, 2008). "The Silicon Forest Blog: NVIDIA v. Intel: Rivalry heating up". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  10. ^ Takahashi, Dean (September 26, 2023). "Jensen Huang returns to Denny's where trillion-dollar company began". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  11. ^ "TIME100 AI 2023: Jensen Huang". Time. September 7, 2023. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  12. ^ "#61 Jen-Hsun Huang". Forbes. April 30, 2008. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  13. ^ "Jensen Huang". NVIDIA. Archived from the original on May 31, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  14. ^ Gurdus, Lizzy (May 6, 2018). "Nvidia CEO: My mom taught me English a 'random 10 words at a time' before we emigrated from Taiwan". CNBC. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
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  16. ^ a b Whitaker, Bill (April 28, 2024). "Meet Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the man behind the $2 trillion company powering today's artificial intelligence". 60 Minutes. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  17. ^ a b Fitch, Asa (February 26, 2024). "Nvidia's Stunning Ascent Has Also Made It a Giant Target". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 27, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  18. ^ Taylor, Chloe (October 23, 2023). "Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang says 'nobody in their right mind' would start a company, and he'd opt out if he could go back in time". Fortune. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  19. ^ Cohen, Ben (May 18, 2024). "The 84-Year-Old Man Who Saved Nvidia". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024.
  20. ^ Huddleston Jr., Tom (March 15, 2024). "Success requires 'ample doses of pain,' billionaire Nvidia CEO tells Stanford students: 'I hope suffering happens to you'". CNBC Make It. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  21. ^ a b c Nusca, Andrew (November 16, 2017). "This Man Is Leading an AI Revolution in Silicon Valley—And He's Just Getting Started". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  22. ^ Kahn, Jeremy (November 12, 2024). "60 direct reports, but no 1-on-1 meetings: How an unconventional leadership style helped Jensen Huang of Nvidia become one of the most powerful people in business". Fortune. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  23. ^ Leswing, Kit (November 29, 2023). "Nvidia CEO: Senior executives don't need pampering, career guidance". CNBC. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
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  25. ^ Tan, Kwan Wei Kevin (March 27, 2024). "Mark Zuckerberg says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is basically the Taylor Swift of tech". Business Insider. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
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  27. ^ a b Lin, Liza; Wang, Joyu; Jie, Yang (June 8, 2024). "Nvidia's Jensen Huang Finds Celebrity Status". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  28. ^ Liu, Bo (June 8, 2008). "中国情 灾区学生亲手为黄仁勋系红领巾". ZOL. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
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  31. ^ "Events and News: Jen-Hsun Huang Hall Dedication Ceremony". Oneida Baptist Institute. Archived from the original on March 30, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  32. ^ Rogoway, Mike (October 15, 2022). "OSU plans $200m supercomputer center backed by $50m from Nvidia CEO". OregonLive.com. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  33. ^ "Northern California's 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year". Bloomberg. May 20, 1999. Archived from the original on August 4, 2021. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  34. ^ "Viterbi Awards". USC Viterbi | School of Engineering. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  35. ^ "Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award Nomination Form". Global Semiconductor Alliance. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  36. ^ "Alumni Fellows". fororegonstate.org. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  37. ^ "CEO Today Magazine January 2020 Edition". CEO Today Magazine. January 24, 2020. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  38. ^ "OSU to award 4,680 degrees this week in commencements at Corvallis, Bend". Oregon State University. June 11, 2009. Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  39. ^ Lima, Joao (June 13, 2018). "EDGE 50: The world's first top 50 edge computing influencers". Broad Group. Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  40. ^ "Harvard Business Review Publishes 2019 Ranking of the World's Best-Performing CEOs". Bloomberg.com. October 22, 2019.
  41. ^ "Jensen Huang, 57". Automotive News Europe. October 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  42. ^ "NVIDIA 創辦人暨執行長黃仁勳獲頒臺灣大學名譽博士". YouTube. November 15, 2020. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  43. ^ Strong, Matthew (May 27, 2023). "Nvidia founder to set up AI center at National Taiwan University". Taiwan News. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  44. ^ "NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang to Receive Semiconductor Industry's Top Honor". Semiconductor Industry Association. August 12, 2021. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  45. ^ Shilov, Anton (September 15, 2021). "Jensen Huang Makes Time 100 List of Influential People". Tom's Hardware. Archived from the original on February 19, 2024. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  46. ^ Mann, Jyoti (April 19, 2024). "Zuck just revealed the secret ingredient in his bromance with Jensen Huang". Business Insider.
  47. ^ "Who was the best CEO of 2023? We measure up the business world's top dogs". The Economist. December 28, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  48. ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023". Time. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  49. ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024". TIME. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  50. ^ "National Academy of Engineering Elects 114 Members and 21 International Members". Archived from the original on February 7, 2024. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
  51. ^ Thompson, Jack Dunn,Selena Kuznikov,Jazz Tangcay,Jaden; Dunn, Jack; Kuznikov, Selena; Tangcay, Jazz; Thompson, Jaden (May 1, 2024). "Keanu Reeves, Jung Kook, Hayao Miyazaki Among Gold House's A100 Honorees". Variety. Retrieved May 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ 三立新聞網 (September 6, 2024). "黃仁勳、蘇姿丰入列！工研院新科院士出爐 5人名單一次看 | 財經 | 三立新聞網 SETN.COM". www.setn.com (in Chinese). Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  53. ^ "100 Most Powerful People in Business". Fortune. November 12, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  54. ^ "Nvidia chief Jensen Huang to visit Hong Kong to receive honorary doctorate". South China Morning Post. October 30, 2024.
  55. ^ "The VinFuture 2024 Grand Prize honours 5 scientists for transformational contributions to the advancement of deep learning". Việt Nam News. December 7, 2024.
  56. ^ a b c Solomont, E.B. (March 4, 2024). "Jensen Huang's Homes: How the Nvidia CEO Grew His Property Portfolio". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  57. ^ "Masters of Leadership: Dr. Lisa Su". www.cta.tech. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  58. ^ "台南四百最大榮光 黃仁勳蘇姿丰各寫傳奇 | 中華日報|中華新聞雲". China Daily News. June 1, 2023. Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  59. ^ "羅家女會念書 與南女淵源深 | 中華日報|中華新聞雲". China Daily News. June 1, 2023. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  60. ^ Blanchard, Ben; Cherney, Max A. (June 5, 2024). "Like a pop star, Nvidia's CEO Huang stirs up 'Jensanity' in Taiwan". Reuters. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  61. ^ "Super Micro's shares up 3454% in the past 5 years".
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