No Task Is Beneath Me – How NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Became One Of The World's Richest People

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA is arguably one of the best companies in the tech sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.85 trillion. The company has been in the limelight for years, remaining an investor favorite. Shares of NVDA have risen by over 175% over the past year, propelling the wealth of its co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who holds a 3% stake. Today, Huang has over $101 billion net worth, making him the 15th richest man in the world.

The origins of NVIDIA are as fascinating as its ascent to market leader. Huang, a Stanford University graduate, used to work as a dishwasher at Denny's and clean toilets to earn a living as a teenager. 

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"I mean, I cleaned a lot of toilets," Huang said in an interview at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, "I've cleaned more toilets than all of you combined – and some of them you just can't unsee."

Despite becoming one of the most influential men in tech, Huang isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. 

"To me, no task is beneath me because, remember, I used to be a dishwasher [and] I used to clean toilets," Huang said. 

Incorporating NVIDIA Over Breakfast 

The idea for NVIDIA came about when Huang met Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem at a Denny's in San Francisco in 1993 while he was working for Advanced Micro Devices. 

"We came right here to this Denny's, sat right back there, and the three of us decided to start the company," Huang reminisced during an interview with CBS' 60 minutes, "Frankly, I had no idea how to do it, nor did they. None of us knew how to do anything."

Since then, Huang has successfully steered NVIDIA to become the largest chip manufacturer pandering to the artificial intelligence markets. Today, according to estimates published by Mizuho Securities, NVIDIA controls between 70% and 95% of the global market for AI chips used for training and deploying generative AI models like ChatGPT. 

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The Journey to a Trillion-Dollar Company

However, this journey hasn't been easy. Just two years after its inception in 1995, NVIDIA was on the verge of bankruptcy when its low-cost processing chip was rendered "technically poor" for graphics. At the time, Huang got a financial lifeline from video gaming company Sega, which gave them funds to stay afloat for six months. 

"At Nvidia, I [have] experienced failures. Great big ones – all humiliating and embarrassing," Huang said during a commencement speech at National Taiwan University last year, adding, "The CEO of Sega, to his credit and my amazement, agreed. His understanding and generosity gave us six months to live."

During this time, NVIDIA launched the RIVA 128 chip – the company's first big hit, selling over a million units in just four months in 1997. This was just the starting point for the chip giant, which grew to become the second most valuable company in the world. Over the past five years, NVIDIA's revenues rose at a compound annual growth rate of 39.1%, while its earnings per share rose at a compounded rate of 47.9% per year since 2019. 

"This is the most extraordinary thing," he said. "That a normal dishwasher busboy could grow up to be this. There's no magic. It's just 61 years of hard work every single day. I don't think there's anything more than that."

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