The immigrant former dishwasher who founded Nvidia, the microchip giant worth more than Google and Amazon

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Having immigrated to the United States at age 9 without speaking English, Jensen Huang went on to found Nvidia, one of the most valuable technology companies in the world. Jensen Huang arrived in the US when he was 9 years old and did not know how to speak English Getty Images via BBC In the name of Nvidia, the company founded by Jensen Huang in 1993, three revealing elements are mixed: NV, for “new/next vision” (the vision of what is to come); VID, a reference to video — as the company started out focusing on developing graphics cards for computers —; but also the word “invidia”, which is used in Latin to refer to envy. And, judging by the surprising results that this technology company has had in the last year, it is likely that this is indeed the feeling that both the company and its founder have awakened in their competitors. Between March 2023 and March 2024, Nvidia’s share value jumped from $264 to $886, taking its total valuation to more than $2 trillion and making it the third most valuable publicly traded company in the world. , surpassing Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Meta; and behind only Microsoft and Apple. The rapid multiplication of Nvidia’s value is explained by the fever surrounding artificial intelligence and the fact that this company is a supplier of more than 70% of the chips that make this technology possible. Chips on the rise: why Nvidia is growing more than ‘big techs’ But these, in turn, would not exist if it were not for Huang’s vision, who bet on this market when it practically did not yet exist and, in this way, contributed to make it come true. Today, as Wired magazine recently declared, Huang is considered “the man of the hour, the year and perhaps the decade”; while Jim Cramer, investment analyst at the American network CNBC, stated that the founder of Nvidia surpasses Elon Musk as a visionary. Huang’s story, however, was not without difficulties, risks and hard work, including many hours spent cleaning toilets and waiting tables as a waiter. Childhood in reform school Jensen Huang was born in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, in 1963. He spent part of his childhood in the country and in Thailand, until his parents decided to send him and his brother to the United States. The boys did not speak English and were welcomed by their uncles, also immigrants, who sent them to study at the Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky. At the time, the institute looked more like a reformatory than a regular school. According to a bulletin published by the school in 2016, the two brothers were allowed to live, eat and work at the institution which, at the time, only offered bachelor’s degrees. They attended classes at Oneida Elementary School. Little Jensen Huang was in charge of cleaning the bathrooms. “The boys were really difficult,” commented the businessman in an interview with American public radio NPR in 2012. “They all had razors in their pockets and, when there were fights, it wasn’t pretty to see. The boys got hurt.” Despite all these difficulties, Huang always stated that it was a great experience and that he enjoyed his time at the institute. In 2016, he and his wife, Lori, donated US$2 million (about R$10 million) to the construction of a building with classes and dormitories for girls at that educational center. Hitting the jackpot A few years later, the boys moved to Oregon. They reunited with their parents, who also migrated to the United States. Huang attended Oregon State University where he studied Electrical Power. He says that it was there that his eyes were opened to “the magic behind” computers. And it was also there that “luck” led him to meet his wife Lori, his laboratory practice partner. Lori was one of three students attending a course with 80 students. In a lecture given at the university in 2013, Huang highlighted how he also happened to know Nvidia’s two co-founders, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. “In general, I’m saying that chance is very important to success,” he said. The three founders of Nvidia had the idea to create the company during breakfast at a Denny’s fast food chain in San José, California. The snack bar received a plaque that commemorates what happened, after, in 2023, the technology company was listed for the first time at a value of US$1 trillion (around R$5 trillion). Nvidia microchips are playing a leading role in the AI ​​revolution Getty Images via BBC Huang has a long-standing relationship with Denny’s. It was in a cafeteria of that chain in Portland that he got his first job at the age of 15, washing dishes, cleaning tables and working as a waiter. “Excellent labor choice,” he declared. “I highly recommend everyone take their first job in the restaurant industry, which teaches you to be humble and work hard.” Huang often comments that he was good at restaurant tasks. “My first job before being CEO [diretor-executivo] It was washing dishes and I did very well,” he recently highlighted in a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The businessman also stated that working at Denny’s helped him overcome his extreme shyness. “I was horrified by the possibility of needing to talk to people”, he told The New York Times. Betting on the unknown Huang graduated as an engineer in 1984. “A perfect year to graduate”, according to him. It was in that year that the era of personal computers began, with the launch of the first Mac computers. He earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. The course took eight years. At the same time, he worked in various positions at technology companies, such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and LSI Logic, which abandoned shortly before founding Nvidia. In a lecture given in 2013 at Oregon State University, he said that, before creating the company, the three founders asked themselves three questions: Is this work something we would “really love” to do? Is this work worth doing? Is this work “really hard” to do? “Today I ask myself these same questions all the time,” he said. “Because you shouldn’t do anything you don’t love. And you should only work on the things that matter in your life.” Part of his work philosophy is based on betting on these important things, even when there is no clear market established. “We don’t find inspiration in the size of the market, but in the importance of work, because the importance of work is an early indicator of the future market,” he said, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Jensen Huang, founder of technology company Nvidia Reproduction/Instagram/NVIDIA Huang also recommended that people constantly return to basic principles. He assured that this creates many opportunities. Applying this type of ideas, Huang created a company with a very horizontal structure. In it, more than 40 people report directly to him. And Huang also encourages cross-cutting and bottom-up communication. He explained that this is a way to facilitate the flow of ideas and information – and also stay up to date with the team’s best suggestions. “Leading people so they can do great things, inspiring, empowering and helping others – these are the reasons the management team exists, to serve all other workers in the company”, he said, in the talk at Stanford. Judging by Nvidia’s results, this philosophy works. But of course it didn’t prevent the company from going through difficult times. The first of them arrived very quickly. After Nvidia spent the first two years looking for technological solutions to avoid the high price of DRAM memory, its price fell by 90%. This reduction made all the effort invested useless and also opened the doors for dozens of other companies to start competing in the development of the best graphics chips. But Nvidia managed to refocus its efforts and, in 1999, launched the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a type of microprocessor that redefined computer gaming. From then on, the company continued working on the development of GPU-accelerated computing, a model that takes advantage of the massive use of parallel graphics processors and allows you to accelerate the work of programs that require large computing power, such as data analysis, simulations, visualizations and artificial intelligence. The bet on AI sent Nvidia’s share price soaring, making Huang’s personal fortune reach US$79 billion (around R$395 billion). With this, according to Forbes magazine, he became the 18th richest man in the world. And Huang can go even further, thanks to Nvidia’s near-monopoly position in the production of these superchips. Forecasts are that demand will continue to grow in the near future. As a Wall Street analyst mentioned in The New Yorker magazine highlighted, “there is a war going on in the field of artificial intelligence and Nvidia is the only seller of weapons.” It seems that Jensen Huang’s luck may continue to improve in the future. 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