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Meet the ‘Steve Jobs of AI’, Jensen Huang: the Nvidia CEO has a US$73 billion net worth, and went from washing dishes at Denny’s to making cheesesteaks with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg

Who is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and why is he the “Steve Jobs of AI”? Photo: Reuters
Who is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and why is he the “Steve Jobs of AI”? Photo: Reuters

  • Taiwan-born Huang is known for his black leather jacket look, and his company Nvidia, a graphics chip maker, counts Tesla and Microsoft as some of its biggest clients
  • The company’s Santa Clara headquarters is named Voyager after the Star Trek starship, and Huang is often seen lunching with fellow staffers; he owns a US$44 million home in San Fran’s Billionaires’ Row

In February, Nvidia became only the third company in US history to pass the US$2 trillion market value, per Forbes.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg poses in Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s iconic black leather jacket. Photo: @zuck/Instagram
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg poses in Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s iconic black leather jacket. Photo: @zuck/Instagram

The company is known for offerings such as its accelerated computing platforms that support AI technology, per Yahoo! Finance, and it boasts the likes of Tesla and Microsoft as some of its top clients.

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At the helm of Nvidia is Jensen Huang, an immigrant by way of Taiwan and Thailand who used to wash dishes at American diner Denny’s, but now cooks cheesesteaks with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. Meet 61-year-old Huang, the man who’s made an incredible rise to become one of the richest people in the world.

How did Nvidia’s Jensen Huang get rich?

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang at the World Governments Summit in 2024. Photo: Reuters
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang at the World Governments Summit in 2024. Photo: Reuters

Huang is the co-founder of Nvidia and currently owns around 3 per cent of the company that went public in 1999, per Forbes. Huang has been credited for Nvidia’s impressive rise. It became a leader in computer gaming chips, eventually entering the market for data centres chips and autonomous cars.

His net worth is an estimated US$72.7 billion at the time of writing, per Forbes. His bank account has skyrocketed since 2017, with his total fortune up almost thirty times since then.

Why is Jensen Huang called “the Steve Jobs of AI”?

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in 2023. Photo: EPA
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in 2023. Photo: EPA