Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been one of the poster boys for the AI revolution because his company's chips are essential for the technology. Now his personal life is in the spotlight after revelations of an affair
with a purported Chinese spy that triggered an investigation by the board.
Here's a look at Jensen Huang.
Nvidia is a tech giant that's worth more than $4 trillion, making it one of the world's most valuable companies. But the company's beginnings more than 30 years ago were decidedly unglamorous.
The company got its start when three engineers — Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem — gathered in 1993 at a Denny's diner in San Jose, California, in what's now the heart of Silicon Valley. They discussed building a computer chip that would make graphics for video games faster and more realistic. That conversation, and the ones that followed, led to the founding of Nvidia.
Why Denny's?
Huang worked at the restaurant when he was young and his time there appears to have played a big role in his early life. On his LinkedIn profile he lists only two work experiences — as Nvidia's founder and CEO, and as a dishwasher, busboy and waiter at Denny's from 1978 to 1983.
Huang was born in Taiwan and then spent some time in Thailand because his father moved the family there for work. His parents then sent him to the United States when he was 9, along with his older brother. They lived with an uncle in Tacoma, Washington, who soon enrolled them in the Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky, believing it to be a prestigious boarding school.
It turned out to be a religious reform school. The institute was only a high school at the time so the boys attended a local public elementary school while living in the dorm. Huang has told interviewers he scrubbed toilets in the dorm, taught an illiterate bunk mate how to read, and was bullied for being Chinese.
“And the kids were really tough,” Huang told NPR in 2012. “They all had pocket knives — and when they get in fights, it’s not pretty. Kids get hurt.”
But he also said he loved his time there. Huang and his wife, Lori, donated $2 million to the institute for a new girls dorm and classroom that opened in 2019.
Huang's parents later came to the United States and the family reunited in Oregon, where he attended high school, graduating early after skipping two grades.
At Oregon State University, Huang studied electrical engineering in a class that had about 250 students, only three of whom were female, including his future wife, Lori, who was on his lab team.
“I suggested that we ought to do homework together every weekend. That was my way of asking a girl out for a date, I guess,” he said in a 2025 interview with the Computer History Museum. “My pickup line was you wanna see my homework?”
The couple worked as chip designers in Silicon Valley, with Huang earning his graduate degree from Stanford University in 1992. They reportedly have two children.
In 1995, the company showed off its graphics chip technology to Associated Press Television News.
“The nature of our technology is to accelerate multimedia applications for the consumer," said Huang, wearing a blue and white plaid shirt.
Huang is known for typically wearing a black leather jacket when he appears at Nvidia product launches and developer conferences. It's a signature style that evokes another tech icon, Apple founder Steve Jobs, who was known for appearing in black turtlenecks.
The style could also be an effort to signal that, like Jobs, Huang is a one of a kind businessman. Tech industry analysts say it would be hard to find someone else to do the job if the investigation results in a decision to remove Huang.
“Jensen is a core part of the fabric of Nvidia and a key part of their success. He’s the huge asset,” Dan Ives, a partner at Yorkville Ives & Co., told The Associated Press. “That's the worry here, that Jensen’s not replaceable. Nvidia without Jensen is a much different company."
____
AP videojournalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report.
