Jensen Huang

From LSI Logic to a GPU company

Before NVIDIA, Huang worked at LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and a master's from Stanford. The company bio gives no years for either.2

NVIDIA says it was founded on 5 April 1993 by Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. It says it invented the GPU in 1999 and introduced CUDA in 2006. It reports more than 4 million developers building for accelerated computing and 15,000 startups in its Inception programme.45

Selling the chips behind the AI boom

At the GTC conference in March 2024 Huang introduced a new chip and said: "We created a processor for the generative AI era."13

NVIDIA launched the Blackwell data-center architecture in fiscal 2025 and unveiled Rubin in fiscal 2026, with production shipments expected in the second half of fiscal 2027. Compute and Networking brought in $193.5 billion of the fiscal 2026 revenue. The company also signed a non-exclusive licensing deal with Groq and introduced the Groq 3 LPX accelerator for Vera Rubin.14

At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2024 he told the room "Everybody is a programmer, and the programming language of the future is called ‘human.’"14

Buying Mellanox, losing Arm, agreeing to buy Hugging Face

NVIDIA completed its $7 billion purchase of Mellanox on 27 April 2020. In September 2020 it agreed to buy Arm. The US Federal Trade Commission sought to block the $40 billion deal, and NVIDIA, SoftBank and Arm replied that it would enhance innovation and competition. The parties ended the agreement on 7 February 2022 because of regulatory challenges, and the FTC then dismissed its complaint.78915

SoftBank kept the $1.25 billion NVIDIA had prepaid, and NVIDIA kept a 20-year Arm licence. Huang said Arm had "a bright future" and that NVIDIA would support it "as a proud licensee for decades to come".8

On 2 September 2026 NVIDIA agreed to buy Hugging Face, with about $11.9 billion going to its stockholders. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to approvals.6

China, export controls and regulators

NVIDIA's annual report says an April 2025 US licence rule for H20 chips cost it a $4.5 billion charge in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Licences granted in August 2025 let some H20 shipments through and produced about $60 million of revenue. US officials said they expected the government to receive 15% or more of that revenue, but NVIDIA says no regulation set such a rule.4

A February 2026 licence allowed small H200 shipments to named Chinese customers; NVIDIA reported no revenue from it and said the chips would face a 25% US import tariff. It also says it was effectively foreclosed from China's data-center market at the end of fiscal 2026.4

China's market regulator opened an antitrust investigation into NVIDIA in December 2024, citing suspected breaches of the Anti-Monopoly Law and of the conditions attached to the Mellanox approval. In September 2025 it published a preliminary finding that NVIDIA's compliance with US export controls discriminated unfairly against Chinese customers. NVIDIA says those controls forced it to offer degraded products. The filing describes possible penalties but no final decision.411

In May 2022 the US Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges against NVIDIA over its fiscal 2018 disclosures about cryptomining and gaming revenue. NVIDIA neither admitted nor denied the findings and paid a $5.5 million penalty. The charges were against the company. The French Competition Authority has also collected information in an ongoing inquiry, and NVIDIA says regulators in the EU, US, UK, China and South Korea have sent broad information requests.410

Huang, year by year

1. 1993

   Founded NVIDIA on 5 April with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem15

2. 1999

   NVIDIA says it invented the GPU4

3. 2006

   NVIDIA introduced CUDA4

4. Mar 2019

   NVIDIA announced the Mellanox acquisition7

5. Apr 2020

   Completed the $7 billion Mellanox purchase7

6. Sep 2020

   NVIDIA agreed to acquire Arm from SoftBank8

7. Feb 2022

   NVIDIA and SoftBank ended the Arm deal because of regulatory challenges; the FTC dismissed its complaint89

8. May 2022

   NVIDIA settled SEC charges over fiscal 2018 cryptomining disclosures, paying $5.5 million10

9. Dec 2024

   China's market regulator opened an antitrust investigation of NVIDIA11

10. Mar 2026

    Named by the White House to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology12

11. Sep 2026

    NVIDIA agreed to acquire Hugging Face6

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