Jensen Huang, known for sporting a black leather jacket to shareholder events, appeared to have it all. He was courted by leaders in both Washington and Beijing, worshipped by investors and seen as a loyal family man. But a rockstar approach to his personal life has ultimately led to his resignation.
The 63-year-old has been married since 1985, long before the foundation of Nvidia, the company that propelled him to tech stardom, and he presented himself as a loyal family man.
He is known as a workaholic and a demanding manager, with high standards for those who worked for him, which included his own children, promoted within the company. But he has seen his personal reputation go into free fall this week, undone by romantic entanglements, that throw doubt on his focus and his judgement.
On Thursday he resigned following back-to-back revelations of two affairs. News of the first – a relationship with a businesswoman, alleged to be a Chinese spy – ricocheted around the world, raising eyebrows among investors. It was followed on Wednesday by reports that the tech boss had also had an affair with an Nvidia colleague.
His departure creates uncertainty in the global stock market, which was already knocked-off balance in recent weeks. Nvidia is a linchpin in the US’s race for technology leadership with China.
Huang may not be a household name on the same level as Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg.
But his role in the tech industry, especially in relation to the explosion of artificial intelligence in the last three years, may prove more consequential. Nvidia dominates the market for the microchips, which are used to power the new technology.
The company, which is still valued at nearly $4 trillion despite recent events, is at the centre of the AI race between the US and China, the world’s tech and economic powerhouses.
Huang has had access to the seats of political power on an unrivalled scale, being courted by both US President Donald Trump and China’s President XI Jinping.
His remarkable rise to the top of his profession has led to him being dubbed the “Taylor Swift of tech” and seen him amass an estimated fortune of $145bn (£109bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Despite always donning his trademark black leather jacket look, Huang has worked for years to present himself as a family man, someone who exemplified the American Dream.
Born in Taiwan in 1963, Huang and his family moved to the west coast of the US when he was nine years old. He graduated as an electrical engineer from Oregon State University, and then with a master’s degree in the same field from Stanford University.
It was at college where he met his wife, Lori Mills. The pair were lab partners and married in 1985, eight years before Huang founded Nvidia.
They have two children, Madison and Spencer, who now both work at their father’s firm.
He worked at US chip firm AMD before co-founding Nvidia. Known as “Daddy Huang” in Taiwan, he has a reputation for having incredibly high standards for his staff.
The company became a key provider of computer chips and circuits used for gaming before it expanded in direction and entered the world of AI. It now creates the key processing chips used to power the growing technology.
