Jensen Huang: Why is Nvidia boss the ‘Taylor Swift of technology’? – BBC news

Wherever Jensen Huang goes these days, the crowd chants his name and competes for selfies and autographs.

He’s not the usual celebrity; the 61-year-old electrical engineer is the CEO of Nvidia, the chip powerhouse whose value has soared just past $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion), briefly overtaking Apple as the world’s second most valuable company. company, before withdrawing.

“He’s literally being treated like a rock star,” says technology analyst Bob O’Donnell. “Jensen sees this opportunity to build on Nvidia. He’s clearly enjoying the moment.”

His new-found stature, complete with a $9,000 Tom Ford motorcycle jacket, was on display this week at Computex in Taiwan – the annual technology conference attracts the world’s biggest companies to the island.

Mr Huang, who was born in Taiwan but left when he was just five years old, posed for countless photos and even scribbled his name on a woman’s top during the conference, wondering aloud whether this was a “good idea” . It was, in the words of the local media, pure ‘Jensanity’.

This comes as US regulators are reportedly planning to open an investigation into major tech companies, including Nvidia, over their dominance over the AI ​​industry.

The interest Mr. Huang has sparked has not been lost on his peers – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to a social media follower who didn’t know who Mr. Huang was, describing him as “Taylor Swift, but for technology” .

Mr. Huang is at the forefront of a technology boom, and his rise has coincided with Nvidia’s rise as the leading designer of AI chips.

Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC is the sole manufacturing partner for Nvidia’s advanced AI chips. And Nvidia’s success was a boost for TSMC, whose shares hit a record high on Thursday.

High-end chips, including those for AI, have become a source of geopolitical tensions as the US and China race to master production. But it’s Taiwan that’s currently at the top of that game; it makes almost all of the world’s most advanced chips.

All this has created a lot of buzz around Mr. Huang and the company he founded decades ago. His success is also a matter of pride for Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims.

As these claims have become more aggressive, Taiwan’s chip exports have become both a lifeline and an instrument of soft power.

“In Taiwan, he’s also the local boy who has done well. That’s something people can get behind,” O’Donnell said.

Although he lives in Santa Clara, California, where Nvidia is headquartered, Mr. Huang regularly visits Taiwan. He has always emphasized that Nvidia would continue to invest in the island.

Just this week, he told reporters that the company plans to build a regional headquarters in Taiwan, which is welcome news for the island. It is concerned about shifting chip production abroad as manufacturers look for alternative supply routes that would be safe in the event of a Chinese invasion.

And of course there is the success of Nvidia itself. Shares have risen more than 200% in the past year.

The company has been catapulted to tech stardom as AI and the chips that power it are becoming as cool as any fancy new gadget.

Mr. Huang knows this well. He has led Nvidia’s chip launches, which have been compared to massively watched Apple events.

In Taiwan, where he launched new products, he spoke for two hours about the company’s history.

“Nvidia’s last major conference in San Jose took place in a stadium. It was packed and large lines of people could not get in. It was like a rock concert,” Mr. O’Donnell said.

“This time he spoke in a sports stadium in Taiwan. I joked that he was on his arena tour.

First of all, Mr. Huang loves his leather jackets. He credits his wife and daughter for making it his signature style.

An Nvidia spokesperson says he’s been wearing one for more than 20 years. His latest Tom Ford pick is from the fashion house’s 2023 season – and he’s even kept it on during visits to humid Singapore.

“Leather jackets can signal an edge: a willingness to break the rules, do things differently and challenge the status quo,” says fashion stylist Sera Murphy.

“Jensen’s signature style gives him a casual, approachable energy,” she adds.

Signature styles are not uncommon among technology CEOs. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known for the outfit he wore all the time: a black St. Croix turtleneck, blue Levi’s 501 jeans and New Balance 991 sneakers. Mr. Zuckerberg usually wears plain sweaters and t-shirts from luxury fashion brands.

“Uniform dress” can help entrepreneurs create an image of stability around their businesses, Ms. Murphy says.

“People need consistency from leaders. Wearing a uniform makes things predictable in a market that is volatile and unpredictable.”

Aside from his leather jacket, Mr. Huang fits the description of a tech nerd.

He was nine years old when his family moved to the West Coast in the US. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from Oregon State University and then with a master’s degree in the same field from Stanford University.

He married his college sweetheart and laboratory partner, Lory Mills, also an electrical engineer. The couple has two children.

He worked at the American chip company AMD before co-founding Nvidia in 1993. The company was originally known for its graphics processing chips, particularly for computer games. Ultimately, it shifted focus to AI, a field it now dominates.

Interest in AI skyrocketed after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. The chatbot was trained using 10,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) clustered in a supercomputer.

Nvidia is now the third most valuable company in the world, behind Microsoft and Apple.

According to Forbes, Mr. Huang himself has a net worth of about $106 billion, making him the 14th richest person in the world. Mr. O’Donnell says Mr. Huang will likely continue to appear at events, trying to drum up the Nvidia brand.

“At technology conferences everyone wants Jensen to be on stage and he is happy to participate. Because of what he has done, he appears everywhere. He has positioned himself as the poster child for generative AI,” says O’Donnell.

“The problem is that the industry doesn’t like monopolies. Nvidia has a huge market share, but competitors like AMD and Intel are starting to catch up.”