Who Is Jensen Huang? NVIDIA CEO’s Biography, Education, Career and Net Worth

Jensen Huang is one of the co-founders, President, and Chief Executive Officer of NVIDIA Corporation. His leadership has driven NVIDIA from a graphics chip company to a major supplier of GPUs and computer systems. Born in Taiwan, Jensen moved to the United States as a young child. He studied at both Oregon State University and Stanford University, studying Electrical Engineering.

Early Life and Education

Jensen was born on the 17th February 1963 in Tainan, Taiwan. When he was 5 years old his parents, Huang Hsing-tai and Lo Tsai-hsiu, moved him to Thailand.

When he was 9 years old he and his brother moved to the United States to live with their extended family. They went to Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky after his Uncle incorrectly assumed it was a prestigious boarding school. The school was actually a reformatory school, and Jensen experienced bullying and harsh living conditions whilst attending.

Once his parents moved to join him in the United States, they moved to Oregon. Jensen went to Aloha High School. During his time here, he played competitive table tennis and achieved a national rank.

Jensen went on to study Electrical Engineering and graduated from the following institutions:

Institution	Qualification	Year
Oregon State University	Bachelor of Science (Electrical Engineering)	1984
Stanford University	Master of Science (Electrical Engineering)	1992

During his time at Oregon State University, he met his future wife, Lori Mills. Before setting up NVIDIA, Jensen worked for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and LSI Logic.

Setting up NVIDIA in 1993

In April 1993 Jensen set up NVIDIA Corporation along with two other engineers: Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Jensen became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

The three wanted to develop graphics processing technology for the growing video game market. They began with around $40,000 in funding but were able to secure Venture Capital Funding.

They listed on the stock exchange in 1999. That same year, they released the GeForce 256 – the world’s first GPU.

Jensen has become well known for getting the NVIDIA logo tattooed onto his left shoulder once the stock hit $100.

Growth of NVIDIA and the AI revolution

Originally, NVIDIA focused on providing graphics technology for computers and video games. However, they have grown to provide high-performance computing, data centers, self-driving cars, robotics and AI.

One of the key developments was the creation of the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) in 2006. This meant developers could use NVIDIA GPUs for general-purpose computing.

GPUs can perform multiple calculations, meaning they are ideal for training and using machine learning models. This helped NVIDIA to grow and become a key supplier of computing infrastructure for AI.

With generative AI becoming more popular, NVIDIA has grown massively. Their GPUs and software have become key in AI research.

What is Huang’s Law?

Huang’s Law is an observation made by Jensen Huang regarding the performance of GPUs.

At NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference in 2018, Jensen highlighted that NVIDIA GPUs had improved by around 25 times in 5 years. This became known as Huang’s Law.

This is often discussed with Moore’s Law. This is the observation that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit has increased over time.

Jensen’s Net Worth in 2026

Jensen’s Net Worth mainly comes from his NVIDIA stock. As the company has grown in value due to demand for AI chips, his wealth has grown.

According to Forbes, Jensen’s Net Worth was estimated to be around $187.4 billion on the 16th September 2026.

This placed him in the top 8 richest people in the world. This is an old figure and not his current Net Worth in November. His Net Worth changes depending on how much NVIDIA’s stock increases.