Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has recently made headlines by surpassing Mukesh Ambani in Forbes' real-time billionaire rankings. With a jaw-dropping net worth of $119 billion, Huang's wealth has skyrocketed by an astonishing 2280% over the last five years. This surge reflects Nvidia’s rapid rise as a tech giant, solidifying its status as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, has been at the helm since day one, steering the company through transformative growth. Under his leadership, Nvidia’s market capitalization has ballooned by 177%, reaching a massive $3.33 trillion. A large part of this growth can be credited to Nvidia’s unmatched dominance in artificial intelligence (AI). Just in June, the company’s stock jumped over 3%, adding more than $4 billion to Huang’s fortune.
When Nvidia went public in 1999, it was primarily known for its expertise in graphics processing units (GPUs). Fast forward to today, and the company has expanded into AI, data centers, and autonomous driving, becoming a global force in these industries. Its recent stock split, which lowered the share price from over $1,200 to below $130, has made it more accessible to a wider range of investors, further increasing its market value.
At the beginning of 2024, Forbes estimated Huang's net worth at $77 billion, but Nvidia’s soaring market cap has catapulted him higher on the wealth rankings. He now trails only Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, while surpassing Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani. This meteoric rise is a testament to Nvidia’s growing influence in the tech world.
In a recent move, Huang revealed plans to sell a small portion of his Nvidia shares. A securities filing shows that he intends to offload 600,000 shares by March 2025, representing just a fraction of his 3% ownership in the company. To put his rise in perspective, Huang ranked 546th on the global wealth list in 2019 with a net worth of $5 billion. By last year, he had leaped to 76th place, reflecting the transformative impact of AI on his personal fortune.
Meanwhile, Gautam Adani, another Indian billionaire, currently ranks 15th with a net worth of $104 billion. Adani’s fortune has increased by $19.6 billion this year, showcasing the intense competition at the top of the global wealth pyramid.
