Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang (born February 17, 1963) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire businessman, electrical engineer, and the co-founder, president and CEO of Nvidia Corporation.
The majority of Huang’s fortune is derived from his stake in Nvidia, a maker of computer processors used in gaming systems and cars. Huang co-founded the Santa Clara, California-based company with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, according to its website.
Huang owns about 3.5% of the company, in his own name and in family trusts, according to the 2023 proxy statement. Unvested restricted stock units aren’t included in this analysis.The value of the billionaire’s cash investments is based on an analysis of insider transactions, dividends, taxes and market performance.Bob Sherbin, a spokesperson for Nvidia, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Biography
Early years and education
Huang was born in Tainan, Taiwan. His family first moved to Thailand when he was 5 years old, then emigrated to the United States around 4 to 5 years later, in 1973. When he was 10 years old, he lived in the boys dormitory with his brother at Oneida Baptist Institute while attending Oneida Elementary school in Oneida, Kentucky. His family later settled in Oregon, where he graduated from Aloha High School just outside Portland.
Jensen received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1984, and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1992.
When he was reunited with his family in Oregon, he attended high school in Beaverton and became a nationally ranked table tennis player, according to a profile of Huang on the website of Oregon State University, where he received an undergraduate electrical engineering degree in 1984. Huang earned a master’s degree in the same subject from Stanford University in 1992.
He held jobs in the technology industry before deciding to start Nvidia with friends Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The company had early success developing computer processors used to power video games, and created the first so-called graphics processing unit in 1999.
Huang has been president and chief executive of Nvidia since its founding in 1993. The company held its initial public offering in 1999.
Career
After college he was a director at LSI Logic and a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). At 30 years old in 1993, Huang co-founded Nvidia and is the CEO and president.
He owns 3.6% of Nvidia’s stock, which went public in 1999.
He earned US$24.6 million as CEO in 2007, ranking him as the 61st highest paid U.S. CEO by Forbes.
As of June 19, 2023, Huang’s net worth is US$38.3 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Philanthropy
In 2022 Huang donated US$50 million to his alma mater, Oregon State University, as a portion of a US$200 million donation towards the creation of a supercomputing institute on campus.
Huang gave his other alma mater Stanford University US$30 million to build the Jen-Hsun Huang School of Engineering Center. The building is the second of four that make up Stanford’s Science and Engineering Quad. It was designed by Bora Architects of Portland, Oregon and completed in 2010. Huang gave his alma mater Oneida Baptist Institute US$2 million to build Huang Hall, a new girls’ dormitory and classroom building. It was designed by CMW Architects of Lexington, Kentucky.
In 2007, Huang was the recipient of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation‘s Pioneer Business Leader Award for his work in both the corporate and philanthropic worlds
Milestones
- 1963 Jen-Hsun Huang is born in Taipei, Taiwan.
- 1973 Huang is sent to live in the U.S. with relatives in Tacoma, Washington.
- 1984 Earns degree from electrical engineering from Oregon State University.
- 1992 Receives his masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
- 1993 At age 29, founds Nvidia with two friends after a meal at Denny’s.
- 1999 Nvidia introduces the GPU and holds its IPO.
- 2006 CUDA architecture introduced which expands Nvidia chip market beyond gaming.
- 2016 Nvidia annual revenue surpasses $5 billion.
