Who is Jensen Huang?
Jensen Huang is the Taiwanese-American co-founder, president and chief executive of Nvidia, whose chips power most of the world’s AI computing. Forbes put his net worth at $178 billion on 1 November 2026, seventh in the world 1.
How did Jensen Huang make his money?
Huang co-founded Nvidia in April 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem to make graphics chips for PC games. The same parallel-processing chips turned out to be ideal for training neural networks, and after 2022 demand from AI companies made Nvidia the first company worth $5 trillion, in October 2025 1. He owns about 3% of the company; his fortune fell $22 billion in October 2026 as chip stocks slipped 1.
Career
Before Nvidia, Huang designed microprocessors at AMD and was a director at LSI Logic. He has been Nvidia’s only chief executive, more than three decades in the job, and is known for his black leather jacket and long keynote speeches 2. In 2026 The New York Times reported US intelligence concerns about a Chinese businesswoman close to him; Nvidia said its dealings with her were routine and shared no sensitive information 1.
Early life and education
Huang was born on 17 February 1963 in Tainan, Taiwan, lived in Thailand as a child and was sent to the United States at nine. He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University, where he met his wife, Lori, and earned a master’s degree from Stanford in 1992 2.
