Jensen Huang arrived in Oneida, Kentucky as a ten-year-old boy with long hair and heavily accented English. He faced bullying and physical violence from other students while cleaning toilets to help pay for his education at the reform academy.
Huang founded Nvidia Corporation on the 5th of April 1993 during a meeting at a Denny's roadside diner in East San Jose. The initial capital totaled $600 derived from cash found in Huang's pockets and contributions from co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem.
Nvidia became the first company to reach a market capitalization exceeding $5 trillion in October 2025 during the artificial intelligence boom. This achievement followed the release of the RIVA 128 chip which saved the company from running out of payroll funds by August 1997.
Huang stated that the expansion of AI has driven what he characterized as the largest infrastructure buildout in human history. He emphasized that AI development requires a multi-layered infrastructure spanning energy, computing hardware, cloud services, models, and applications.
Jensen Huang does not keep a fixed office and instead roams Nvidia headquarters settling temporarily in conference rooms as needed. He prefers maintaining a relatively flat management structure with around 60 direct reports who require the least amount of pampering because they are already highly capable leaders.