CEO of Nvidia, the world leader in electronic chips, Jensen Huang is not only one of the richest people on the planet, but in recent years he has also become the influential voice of the irresistible rise of artificial intelligence. Elevated to the status of a tech rock star and adored wherever he goes, his aura extends beyond the geek community, while his personal journey fuels the flourishing narrative of hustle culture, where endurance is already a victory.

Wherever he goes, he draws huge crowds, fills stadiums, and brings together a community of fans who will do anything to get their idol’s autograph on books, posters, or even baseballs. This media personality and popular figure is not Taylor Swift, but Jensen Huang, 62, tech boss hailed as the messiah of artificial intelligence, as was the case last June at the Vivatech trade show in Paris.

He was only 30 years old and had a very compact resume (significant experience in tech, all things considered) when he founded his own company specializing in semiconductor manufacturing, Nvidia.

Although he started out in the geeky, niche world of video games, the AI boom in 2024 will make his fortune to the point where he have run the most valuable company in the world in 2024 and became the driving force behind American sovereignty in new technologies.

A daring Taiwanese-American

The man then known as Jen Hsun was born in Tainan, the former capital of the island of Taiwan, on February 17, 1963. In this middle-class family, his father was a chemical engineer at an oil refinery and his mother was a teacher.

At the age of five, he left his native country for Thailand. Shortly before he turned ten, as the Vietnam War broke out on the border, his parents decided to send him and his brother to the United States.

The two brothers were entrusted to an uncle in Washington State. Accidentally, he ended up at Oneida Baptist Institute, a religious academy for troubled boys in Kentucky, which his uncle mistakenly thought was a prestigious institution. It was a difficult time, during which the young Jensen Huang had to quickly learn English, work on a tobacco farm, clean toilets, and, above all, fit in. He befriended a 17-year-old ex-convict who taught him self-defense and math.

A few years later, he would write one of the only two lines that make up his legendary LinkedIn resume, becoming a “dishwasher, busboy, and server” at Denny’s, a fast-food chain, to finance his studies.

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