10 fascinating facts about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has a company tattoo and dozens of direct reports

Here are 10 facts about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang that may be surprise you. Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

• Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang is on track to be one of the richest people in the world.
• But there’s more to the tech CEO than his wealth. 
• Here are 10 surprising facts about Huang, from his Nvidia tattoo to his staggering number of direct reports.

Jensen Huang, the CEO and cofounder of Nvidia, is leading the charge towards an AI future — with his company making billions.

Just last week, the chip giant reported $22.1 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, far exceeding Wall Street’s expectations. Companies are racing to get their hands on Nvidia’s graphic processing units, or GPUs, to power their AI.

Meanwhile, Huang’s fortune has soared. The CEO, who’s been nicknamed the “Godfather of AI,” is now worth $69.4 billion as of February 25, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

He is now on track to be one of the richest people in the world.

But Huang is known for more than just starting a successful company. Here are some surprising facts about how the CEO got his start and his management style:

He spent his youth at a reform school cleaning bathrooms

Huang’s aunt and uncle accidentally sent him and his brother to Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky when he was a kid, thinking it was a prep school, he told Wired in 2002.

“The kids were really tough,” Huang told NPR in a 2012 interview. “They all had pocket knives — and when they get in fights, it’s not pretty. Kids get hurt.”

Huang also had to clean bathrooms as part of the school’s work requirement, NPR reported.

He first met his wife in college when he was 16

The CEO introduced himself to Lori, his now wife, in an electrical engineering class at Oregon State University in the ’80s. They were lab partners.

“I had a great pickup,” he told HP in a recent interview. “I asked her if she wanted to see my homework.”

The married couple now have two kids.

Nvidia started as an idea at a Denny’s diner

Huang discussed the vision for Nvidia with his friends at a Denny’s in California. Shutterstock

In 1993, Huang met up with his friends Chris Malochowsky and Curtis Priem at a Denny’s in California to discuss a new business idea: starting a graphics company.

“We brainstormed and fantasized about what kind of company it would be and the world we could help. It was fun,” he told Stanford University’s engineering school in a 2010 interview.

He worked part-time at the diner chain as an “incredibly shy” college student, he previously told the New York Times. Waiting tables, he said, helped “pull me out of my shell.”

He has a tattoo of Nvidia’s logo on his shoulder

Nvidia founder, president and CEO Jensen Huang displays his tattoo in September 2010. Robert Galbraith/Reuters

The CEO agreed to get inked when Nvidia’s stock price hit $100 per share. He recalled “crying like a baby.”

“My kids were with me, and they’re like, ‘Dad, you’ve gotta control yourself,'” he told Fortune in 2017 when describing the process.

He said he won’t be getting another tattoo.

“It hurts way more than anybody tells you,” Huang told HP in a recent interview.

He became a style icon thanks to his black leather jacket

Huang wearing his signature black leather jacket. Noah Berger/Getty Images

“I’m happy that my wife and daughter dresses me,” Huang said when asked about his signature look during an interview for HP’s online show “The Moment.”

Huang’s aesthetic has gotten so popular that some online sellers have sold knockoffs using the CEO’s name and image on Amazon, Jacketpop, and Wilson Jackets.

He has 50 people working directly under him

The dozens of employees working under Huang, he said, keep him in the loop on what’s going on across the company.

“The more direct reports the CEO has, the less layers are in the company,” Huang said during an interview at the 2023 DealBook Summit. “It allows us to keep information fluid, allows us to make sure that everyone is empowered by information.”

“Our company just performs better because everybody’s aligned, everybody is informed of what’s going on,” he added.

He reportedly sends hundreds of emails to staff a day

The CEO’s emails —typically only a few words long — seem to come off as brusque, the New Yorker reported.

One executive told the magazine Huang’s emails read like haikus. Another executive compared his emails to ransom notes.

One employee said that interacting with Huang feels like “sticking your finger in the electric socket,” according to the New Yorker,

He’s always worried he’ll be a failure

The leader of the $1.98 trillion company, as of Monday, said he just can’t shake the feeling his chip empire might one day fall given the challenges his business has faced in the past.

“I think when you build a company from the ground up, and you’ve experienced real adversity, and you really experienced nearly going out of business several times, that feeling stays with you,” Huang said during the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit.

He said he grapples with that fear first thing in the morning.

“I don’t wake up proud and confident,” Huang said. “I wake up worried and concerned.”

He said he would never recommend anyone start a company

Huang said that starting Nvidia was “a million times harder than I expected it to be.”

“At that time, if we realized the pain and suffering and just how vulnerable you’re going to feel, and the challenges that you’re going to endure, the embarrassment and the shame, the list of all the things that go wrong, I don’t think anybody would start a company,” the CEO said on an October 2023 episode of the tech podcast “Acquired.”

“Nobody in their right mind would do it,” he added.

He wants Jackie Chan to play him in a movie

“I’ll do my own stunts,” he joked in the HP interview.