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

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

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.

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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

Although he is often linked to Elon Musk because Tesla has spent a lot of money on Nvidia AI training chips, his mammoth success and signature look has resulted in him being called “the Steve Jobs of AI”. Like Jobs, Huang favours the same outfit, always wearing a black leather jacket, per Bloomberg. Wall Street Journal adds that he doesn’t wear a watch because “now” is the most important time.

According to Business Today, Jensen’s friendship with Zuckerberg has solidified his stance in the tech world too. The publication reported on how Jensen invites Zuckerberg over to cook. “‘Let’s make cheesesteaks,’ and I’m like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s make cheesesteaks,’” Zuckerberg was quoted as saying.

Jensen Huang’s “Star Trek” office

Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May 2022. Photo: Reuters

Business Insider reported that Nvidia has a “no barriers no boundaries” approach. Its Santa Clara headquarters, named Voyager after the Star Trek star ship, opened in 2022 and was designed to reflect the ethos. The office has parks and tree houses for staff gatherings and geographical nicknames for different areas in the office. The space is supposed to echo the organisation’s “flat” management approach and, per New York Post, Huang has been seen in the cafeteria, grabbing lunch with fellow staff.

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What is Jensen Huang’s background?

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang (centre left) poses for photographs before attending a press conference at Computex 2023 in Taipei, in May 2023. Photo: AFP

According to Forbes, Huang was born in Taiwan and moved to Thailand as a child. He was born as Jen-hsun, which was later anglicised to Jensen, per Bloomberg. Huang and his brother were later sent to the US when Huang was nine years old and could not speak English, per The New Yorker.

Fortune reports that he worked at Denny’s at one point as a dishwasher. Huang has credited his unrelenting work ethic to his time washing dishes and cleaning toilets there, Business Insider reports.

In fact, the restaurant chain marks a significant point in Huang’s later tech career too: he met two colleagues at a North Carolina branch in 1993 to discuss business ideas. Huang was working as an engineer at the time, while Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem intended to leave Sun Microsystems for a new business venture, per Fortune.

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How does Jensen Huang spend his fortune?

Jensen Huang speaks at the Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan, in May 2023. Photo: Reuters

Huang reportedly lives in a US$44 million home in San Francisco’s “Billionaires’ Row”, per British media. His neighbours include Oracle’s Larry Ellison and investor David Sacks. The house is 11,400 sq ft and has seven bedrooms. Huang also reportedly owns a home in Hawaii worth US$33 million, and he sold his US$9.9 million Los Altos home in 2022.

Per New York Post, the Huang family has a US$1 billion foundation too. Forbes reports that he donated US$30 million to Stanford’s engineering centre and gave US$50 million to Oregon State University for a research centre.

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Eugen Boglaru

Eugen Boglaru is an AI aficionado covering the fascinating and rapidly advancing field of Artificial Intelligence. From machine learning breakthroughs to ethical considerations, Eugen provides readers with a deep dive into the world of AI, demystifying complex concepts and exploring the transformative impact of intelligent technologies.