Five years ago, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s stake in his groundbreaking chipmaker was valued at a modest $3 billion. Following a record-breaking rally on Thursday, propelled by surging stock prices, his holdings have now soared to over $90 billion.
On Wednesday, Nvidia reported first-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations, with sales skyrocketing by over 200% for the third consecutive quarter, fueled by the insatiable demand for AI processors. Huang delivered an optimistic forecast, highlighting the company's central role in meeting the ever-growing demand for AI graphics processing units (GPUs). He reassured investors that Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips, particularly coveted by major cloud companies, promise strong returns on their substantial investments.
“We are fundamentally redefining computing and expanding the capabilities of computers,” Huang emphasized.
Huang controls approximately 86.76 million Nvidia shares, representing more than 3.5% of the company’s outstanding stock. With Thursday’s 9% rise, pushing the stock to nearly $1,038 per share, the value of his stake surged by an astonishing $7.7 billion.
Nvidia’s stock has more than doubled in 2024, following a tripling in 2023, marking a remarkable 28-fold increase over the past five years. Huang strategically added to his stake in 2022, capitalizing on the stock’s relative lows before the AI explosion reshaped the industry.
At 61, Huang, who founded Nvidia in 1993 to develop GPUs for 3D gaming, has steered the company through various tech revolutions. While gaming was Nvidia's mainstay for decades, the company ventured into emerging markets like cloud gaming, the metaverse, and cryptocurrency mining.
Nvidia's fortunes experienced a seismic shift in late 2022 with the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which brought generative AI into the public eye. This breakthrough highlighted a future where computers don't just retrieve information, but generate new content and answers from massive, unstructured data sets.
With companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta ramping up investments in AI development, the demand for Nvidia's advanced AI chips skyrocketed. As the go-to supplier for AI hardware, Nvidia now commands around 80% of the AI chip market. Huang, Nvidia’s charismatic leader and chief evangelist for AI, has positioned himself among the 20 richest individuals globally.
