Jensen Huang: From Immigrant to Tech Titan, a Tale of Resilience and Success

If asked to name the most notable industry worldwide recently, artificial intelligence (AI) would undoubtedly be at the top of the list. Particularly in this industry, NVIDIA has been attracting attention with its surprising performance in the first quarter of this year. Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, has garnered growing interest surrounding his family and substantial wealth.

With NVIDIA’s outstanding performance in the first quarter, Huang’s wealth has skyrocketed to a staggering $91.3 billion. He owns 3.5% of the total shares of NVIDIA, which has led to a massive increase in his wealth.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of May 24, Huang is now the 17th richest person in the world.

This represents a thirtyfold increase from the $3 billion that Huang possessed in 2019, just five years ago. But the good fortune for Huang didn’t stop there. NVIDIA led sales growth with strong performance in semiconductor sales due to increased data centers, surprising the industry with a 427% increase compared to last year. Revenues recorded $22.6 billion.

As of the close of trading on May 24, NVIDIA’s stock price increased by 0.43% compared to the previous day, reaching $1,064.69. NVIDIA’s stock price has been on the rise since the announcement of its surprise performance.

Huang, who founded NVIDIA in 1993, runs a leading semiconductor company in the U.S. The company designs GPUs and graphics cards used in PCs, laptops, and console gaming systems.

Huang was born in Tainan, Taiwan, and moved to Thailand with his engineer father and English teacher mother when he was five. When a democratization movement erupted in Thailand in 1973, leading to many casualties and escalating tensions, his parents decided to send nine-year-old Huang and his older brother to live with their uncle in the United States.

After immigrating to the U.S., Huang had a challenging childhood. He was often ostracized in school due to racial discrimination and bullying, and he worked in a restaurant after school to earn pocket money.

Despite his tough teenage years, Huang persevered, focusing on his exceptional math skills and academic pursuits to overcome the bullying. He graduated early from Aloha High School in Portland and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University.

It is known that Huang met his wife, Lori Huang, during his time at Oregon State University. While little is known about Lori’s early life and background, she is known to have majored in electrical engineering at Oregon State University and has worked as an engineer at HP (Hewlett Packard).

According to local media, the Huangs have made donations to their alma mater, Oregon State University. In 2022, Oregon State University announced the launch of a large-scale research and education center, integrating one of the most powerful supercomputers in the U.S., with an investment of $200 million.

The Huangs reportedly donated $50 million to this foundation. The center was announced to be named after Jensen Huang and Lori Huang as a joint innovation complex.

The center is said to use a powerful supercomputer for research and education, tackling various global challenges in fields such as oceanography, climate science, sustainability, and water resources by researching and utilizing AI, materials science, and robotics.

Regarding the center, the Huangs emphasized, “Artificial intelligence is the most innovative technology of our time.” They stressed that “to utilize this technology, we need to accelerate the research speed of engineers, and the most essential thing for this is a supercomputer.” They added, “Access to a supercomputer will enable students and researchers at Oregon State University to make significant advancements in various sectors.”

Lori plays a vital role as an important advisor and supporter to her husband. In particular, Lori has recently been focusing on promoting education and STEM fields and supporting underprivileged students. Local media have praised the couple’s efforts, noting that their work has had a positive impact not only on NVIDIA’s success but also on broader society.