The Jensen Huang timeline
From a boarding school in Kentucky to the most valuable company on Earth. Filter by chapter, share any moment on X.
Before NVIDIA · 1963–1992
- 1963-02Life
Born in Tainan, Taiwan
Jen-Hsun Huang is born on February 17, 1963.
Share on X - 1970sLife
Off to America
As a child he is sent with his brother to the United States, spending time at a boarding school in rural Kentucky.
Share on X - 1970sLife
High school in Oregon
Rejoins his family in Oregon and finishes high school early.
Share on X - 1984Life
Oregon State University
Earns a bachelor's in electrical engineering — and meets his future wife Lori as a lab partner.
Share on X - 1980sLife
Chip designer at AMD and LSI Logic
Designs microprocessors at AMD, then works at LSI Logic in Silicon Valley.
Share on X - 1992Life
Master's from Stanford
Completes a master's in electrical engineering at Stanford while working.
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Graphics years · 1993–2005
- 1993-04Company
NVIDIA is born at Denny's
Co-founds NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, after planning sessions at a Denny's in San Jose. He is 30.
Share on X - 1995Products
NV1 — the first chip stumbles
NVIDIA's first product, NV1, struggles in the market and nearly sinks the young company.
Share on X - 1997Products
RIVA 128 saves the company
The RIVA 128 graphics chip becomes a hit and keeps NVIDIA alive.
Share on X - 1999-01Market value
NVIDIA goes public
NVIDIA lists on the Nasdaq.
Share on X - 1999Products
GeForce 256 — "the first GPU"
NVIDIA launches GeForce 256 and markets it as the world's first GPU.
Share on X - 2000Products
Inside the original Xbox
Microsoft picks NVIDIA to build the graphics chip for its first Xbox console.
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The long bet · 2006–2021
- 2006AI
CUDA: the long bet
NVIDIA introduces CUDA, letting developers program GPUs for general computing — years before the market existed.
Share on X - 2012AI
AlexNet
The AlexNet image-recognition model, trained on NVIDIA GPUs, wins the ImageNet challenge and ignites the deep-learning era.
Share on X - 2016AI
DGX-1 hand-delivered to OpenAI
Jensen personally delivers one of the first DGX-1 AI supercomputers to OpenAI in San Francisco.
Share on X - 2018Products
RTX and real-time ray tracing
NVIDIA unveils RTX GPUs with real-time ray tracing.
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"The more you buy, the more you save"
A line from his GTC 2018 keynote that the internet never forgot.
Share on X - 2020-04Company
Mellanox acquisition completes
NVIDIA completes its acquisition of networking company Mellanox.
Share on X - 2020-05Products
The kitchen keynote
With events cancelled, Jensen delivers the GTC 2020 keynote from his kitchen.
Share on X - 2020-09Company
The Arm deal is announced
NVIDIA announces a plan to acquire Arm; the deal is abandoned in 2022 amid regulatory opposition.
Share on X - 2021Life
TIME 100
Named one of TIME's 100 most influential people.
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The AI era · 2022–
- 2022-11AI
ChatGPT moment
ChatGPT launches; demand for NVIDIA's AI chips explodes.
Share on X - 2023-05Market value
$1 trillion
NVIDIA's market value passes one trillion dollars.
Share on X - 2024-03Products
Blackwell
NVIDIA unveils the Blackwell GPU platform at GTC 2024.
Share on X - 2024-06Life
Jensanity in Taipei
Crowds chase him around Taipei during Computex — the press calls it "Jensanity."
Share on X - 2024-06Market value
$3 trillion — briefly the world's most valuable
NVIDIA passes $3 trillion and briefly becomes the world's most valuable company.
Share on X - 2025-07Market value
First to $4 trillion
NVIDIA becomes the first company ever to reach a $4 trillion market value.
Share on X - 2025-10Market value
$5 trillion
NVIDIA becomes the first company to pass $5 trillion in market value.
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Stay safe: NVIDIA and Jensen Huang don't run giveaways or investment groups through fan sites or DMs. Anyone asking you for money in his name is a scam.