Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang (; born February 17, 1963) is an American businessman, electrical engineer, and the co-founder, president and CEO of Nvidia Corporation.
Early life
Huang was born in Tainan, Taiwan. His family first moved to Thailand when he was five years old, then emigrated to the United States around four to five years later, in 1973. When he was ten years old, he lived in the boys dormitory with his brother at Oneida Baptist Institute while attending Oneida Elementary school in Oneida, Kentucky. His family later settled in Oregon, where he graduated from Aloha High School just outside Portland.
Jensen received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1984, and his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1992.
Career
After college he was a director at LSI Logic and a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). At 30 years old in 1993, Huang co-founded Nvidia and is the CEO and president.
He owns 3.6% of Nvidia's stock, which went public in 1999.
He earned as CEO in 2007, ranking him as the 61st highest paid U.S. CEO by Forbes.
As of June 19, 2023, Huang's net worth is according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Philanthropy
In 2022 Huang donated to his alma mater, Oregon State University, as a portion of a donation towards the creation of a supercomputing institute on campus.
Huang gave his other alma mater Stanford University to build the Jen-Hsun Huang School of Engineering Center. The building is the second of four that make up Stanford's Science and Engineering Quad. It was designed by Bora Architects of Portland, Oregon and completed in 2010. Huang gave his alma mater Oneida Baptist Institute to build Huang Hall, a new girls' dormitory and classroom building. It was designed by CMW Architects of Lexington, Kentucky.
In 2007, Huang was the recipient of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation's Pioneer Business Leader Award for his work in both the corporate and philanthropic worlds.
Awards
In 1999, Huang was named Entrepreneur of the Year in High Technology by Ernst & Young. In 2003, Huang received the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award, which recognizes a leader who has made exceptional contributions to driving the development, innovation, growth, and long-term opportunities of the fabless semiconductor industry, from the Fabless Semiconductor Association.
Additionally, Huang is a recipient of the Daniel J. Epstein Engineering Management Award from the University of Southern California and was named an Alumni Fellow by Oregon State University. Huang was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University in June 2009.
In 2018, Huang was listed in the inaugural Edge 50, naming the world's top 50 influencers in edge computing. In October 2019, Harvard Business Review named Huang best-performing CEO in the world. In November 2020, Huang was named "Supplier CEO of the year" by Eurostars AutomotiveNewsEurope. Huang was awarded an honorary doctorate from National Taiwan University in November 2020. In August 2021, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that Huang is the 2021 recipient of the industry’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award. In September 2021, he was included in the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Personal life
While at Oregon State, Huang met his future wife, Lori, his engineering lab partner at the time. They have two children. His son, Spencer Huang (), launched a bar in Taipei in 2015, and it was considered one of the top 50 bars in Asia by Forbes. The bar closed in May 2021, and he is now a product manager at Nvidia.
Huang and AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su are relatives. Huang's mother is the youngest sister of Su's maternal grandfather, making them first cousins, once removed.