These days, wherever Jensen Huang goes, crowds chant his name and fight for selfies and autographs.
He’s no ordinary celebrity. The 61-year-old electrical engineer is chief executive of Nvidia, the semiconductor giant worth more than $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion) and which briefly overtook Apple to become the world’s second-largest company before falling back.
“He’s literally being treated like a rock star,” said technology analyst Bob O’Donnell. “Jensen sees this as an opportunity to build on Nvidia’s foundation. He’s clearly enjoying this moment.”
Clad in a $9,000 embossed Tom Ford biker jacket, he showcased his new status this week at Taiwan’s COMPUTEX, the annual tech conference that brings together the world’s biggest companies to the island.
Huang, who was born in Taiwan but left when he was just five years old, posed for countless photos during the conference, scrawled his name on women’s tops and wondered aloud whether this was a “good idea.” It was, in the words of local media, pure “gensanity.”
This comes as US regulators are reportedly planning to launch an investigation into the dominance of big tech companies, including Nvidia, in the AI industry.
The interest that Ms. Huang has generated has not gone unnoticed by her colleagues. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described her as the “Taylor Swift of tech” in response to social media followers who had no idea who she was.
What drives “Gensanity”?
Huang has been at the forefront of a tech boom, with his rise coinciding with Nvidia’s emergence as a leading designer of AI chips.
Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC is Nvidia’s sole manufacturing partner for its cutting-edge AI chips, and Nvidia’s success has boosted TSMC, sending its shares to an all-time high on Thursday.
High-performance chips, including those for AI, have become a source of geopolitical tension as the United States and China compete for manufacturing dominance, but it is Taiwan that currently comes out on top, making nearly all of the world’s most advanced chips.
All of this has created a lot of buzz around Huang and the company he founded decades ago, and his success is a matter of pride in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as autonomous.
As these claims become more assertive, Taiwan’s semiconductor exports have become both a lifeline and a tool of soft power.
“In Taiwan, he’s also a local boy doing good deeds. That’s what brings people together,” O’Donnell said.
Huang lives in Santa Clara, California, where Nvidia is headquartered, but visits Taiwan frequently, and he has always stressed that Nvidia will continue to invest in Taiwan.
He told reporters this week that the company plans to build a regional headquarters in Taiwan, good news for the island, which has been concerned about chip production moving overseas as manufacturers seek safer alternative supply routes in case of a Chinese invasion.
And then, of course, there’s Nvidia’s own success: its stock price has risen more than 200% in the last year.
The company has been catapulted to tech stardom as AI and the chips that power it have become as cool as any trendy new gadget.
Mr. Hwang knows this well: He has overseen Nvidia’s chip launches, which he has likened to widely watched Apple events.
In Taiwan, where the company unveiled its new products, he spoke for two hours about the company’s history.
“NVIDIA’s last big conference in San Jose was in a stadium. The place was packed and there were lines so long you couldn’t get in. It was like a rock concert,” O’Donnell said.
“This time he spoke at a sports stadium in Taiwan. I joked that he was doing an arena tour.”
What do we know about Jensen Huang?
First and foremost, Huang has a love for leather jackets, which he credits to his wife and daughter for making it his trademark style.
He’s been wearing the mask for more than 20 years, according to an Nvidia spokesperson, and Tom Ford’s latest model is for the fashion house’s 2023 season, which he continued to wear during his stay in humid Singapore.
“Leather jackets convey an edgy image – a willingness to break the rules, to be different and challenge the status quo,” says fashion stylist Selah Murphy.
“Jensen’s signature style gives off a casual, approachable energy,” she added.
Signature styles aren’t uncommon among tech CEOs. Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was known for consistently wearing the same outfit: a black mock turtleneck sweater from St. Croix, blue Levi’s 501 jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers. Zuckerberg typically wears plain sweaters and T-shirts from high-end fashion brands.
“Wearing a uniform” helps entrepreneurs project an image of stability for their companies, Murphy said.
“People want consistency from their leaders, and wearing a uniform makes things predictable in a volatile and unpredictable market.”
Leather jacket aside, Huang certainly fits the description of a tech geek.
He was 9 years old when his family emigrated to the West Coast of the U.S. He earned a degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and then a master’s degree in the same field from Stanford University.
He is married to his college sweetheart and lab partner, electrical engineer Laurie Mills, and the couple have two children.
Before co-founding Nvidia in 1993, he worked at US semiconductor company AMD, which was originally known for chips that processed graphics, particularly for computer games, but eventually shifted its focus to AI, a field in which it now dominates.
Interest in AI has skyrocketed since ChatGPT was launched in 2022. The chatbot was trained using 10,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) assembled in a supercomputer.
This puts NVIDIA in the elite club of U.S. companies worth at least $1 trillion since May last year, joining the likes of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Nvidia is currently the third most valuable company in the world after Microsoft and Apple.
Hwang, whose own net worth is about $106 billion, is the 14th richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. O’Donnell said Hwang will likely continue to appear at events to promote Nvidia’s brand.
“Everybody wants to have Jensen on stage at tech conferences, and he loves it,” O’Donnell says. “He’s everywhere because of his work. He’s positioned himself as the voice of generative AI.”
“The problem is that the industry doesn’t like monopolies, and while Nvidia has a large market share, competitors like AMD and Intel are starting to catch up.”
