As of this writing, Jensen Huang’s wealth is estimated at almost US$80 billion, which lands him at the 20th spot in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Buoyed by the rise of AI, whose growth is dependent on the company’s semiconductor chips, Nvidia has experienced exponential growth, with stock prices increasing almost 300 per cent in the past months. In February 2024, Nvidia achieved a US$2 trillion valuation, becoming the first semiconductor company to do so and joining the ranks of US tech giants Microsoft and Apple. Huang owns around three per cent of the trillion-dollar company.

Read Jensen Huang’s full profile on Asia’s Most Influential

In 2023, professional social network Blind surveyed 13,171 verified professionals to determine the approval ratings of leaders. And out of 103 CEOs, Huang came out on top with a stellar approval rating of 96 per cent. Blind also explores the reasons behind the scores, noting how positive stock performance may have contributed to Huang’s near-perfect rating. At the time of the index’s release, Nvidia shares were trending upward, trading three times higher as compared to the start of the year.

Another testament to the CEO’s popularity is his positive relationship with Nvidia employees. When they were thinking of pledges to mark the company’s milestones, Huang offered to get inked. And when Nvidia stock hit US$100 per share, he stayed true to his word, imprinting the company’s all-seeing eye logo, a metaphor for its search for innovation, on his left shoulder. However, in a 2023 interview with The Moment, the CEO shared that he won’t be getting any more tattoos.

The Nvidia CEO is known for his signature style, wearing a black leather jacket in his public appearances. At the press conference of the tech trade show Computex 2023 in Taiwan, a bit of insight was revealed about his preference. When Huang took off his jacket for the general manager of QCT to try on, the style was revealed to be from British luxury fashion house Dunhill.

Of sticking to the black leather jacket, even amid the warm weather of Taiwan, the CEO points to practicality, pointing out how it frees him from thinking about what to wear and how it’s one less decision he has to make. The answer echoes the choices of other famous tech bosses who have adopted a daily uniform to reduce the decisions they make every day: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg prefers dark grey T-shirts by Brunello Cucinelli while Apple’s Steve Jobs wore a black mock turtleneck by Issey Miyaki.

Though the tech industry giant made the cover of Time in 2021, his first magazine appearance was for Sports Illustrated, where he was featured as a 14-year-old ping-pong phenom. Though he is still intensely competitive, he said in an interview for his alma mater, Stanford University, that he had not played in decades. He also told the interviewer that he used to leave the office to sneak in secret lessons from a US Olympic table tennis coach, giving it up after a few months for fear of injury.

A 17-year-old Huang met his wife Lori Mills at Oregon State University (OSU), where the two were laboratory partners in one of their electrical engineering classes. Huang and Mills eventually got together (after spending a lot of time together discussing homework) and, after dating for five years, was married.

Lori is now the president of the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, which supports public health, STEM and higher education organisations, including the OSU Foundation, which received a US$50-million gift from the Huangs. In recognition of their donation, OSU has named its upcoming research facility, the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex.

They have two children, including Spencer Huang, who co-founded the now-defunct R&D Cocktail Lab, one of the establishments named to Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2016. Both of Huang’s children work at Nvidia.

Tatler Asia’s Most Influential is the definitive list of people shaping our world today. Asia’s Most Influential brings together the region's most innovative changemakers, industry titans and thought leaders who are driving positive impact in Asia and beyond. View the full list here.

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