Jensen Huang (born 1963) is the Taiwanese-American co-founder, president, and CEO of NVIDIA, the company that invented the modern GPU and ignited today's artificial-intelligence boom.1 Under his guidance, NVIDIA has grown from a 1993 diner-table startup to a $3-trillion market-cap powerhouse transforming gaming, data centers, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.2 Time, Fortune, and The Economist have repeatedly hailed Huang among the world's most influential business leaders, and Forbes ranked him 11th-richest globally in 2025.3
From Dishwasher to Silicon Valley Visionary
Raised in Taiwan, Thailand, and the U.S., Huang washed dishes at a Denny's in Oregon before earning engineering degrees at Oregon State and Stanford.1 In 1993 he sketched NVIDIA's business plan in another Denny's booth, joining co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem to launch the startup with just $600 in capital.2 The grit forged during those lean years still shapes his "30 days from bankruptcy" leadership mantra.
Architect of Modern GPU-Driven AI
Huang oversaw the 1999 launch of the first GeForce GPU, sparking massively parallel graphics processing.2 He then bet the company on CUDA and accelerated computing, positioning NVIDIA chips as the engine room for deep learning, generative AI, and trillion-parameter models in hyperscale data centers.4 Today the Blackwell and Grace Hopper architectures underpin everything from ChatGPT to humanoid robots.
Philanthropy and Global Recognition Highlights
Beyond Silicon Valley, Huang and his wife Lori have donated over $80 million to Stanford, Oregon State, and disaster-relief education initiatives, and he supports tech-education programs worldwide.5 Honors include the IEEE Founders Medal, the Robert N. Noyce Award, TIME 100 (2021 & 2024), and election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2024).