Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang in 2024. Photo: Photographer: Peter Dasilva / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of Nvidia, spent part of his teenage years in the Portland suburbs, working at a Denny’s and attending public high school. By October 2025, the company he started in 1993 had become the first to reach a market value above $5 trillion.
Oregon is a bigger part of that story than many profiles let on.
From Taipei to Aloha
Huang was born Feb. 17, 1963, in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to Tainan as a child. When he was five, his family went to Thailand, where he spent about four years and attended Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok. At nine, he was sent to the United States. In 1973 he and his older brother settled in Tacoma, Washington, and were enrolled at the Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky.
Two years later, their parents settled in Beaverton, Oregon, and the brothers rejoined them. Huang attended Aloha High School in Aloha, skipped two grades and graduated at 16.
From 1978 to 1983 he worked at a Denny’s restaurant in Oregon, as a dishwasher, a busboy and a waiter.
Oregon State and the early career
Huang earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in Corvallis in 1984, with highest honors. He met his future wife, Lori Mills, there. They married in 1985 and have two children, Spencer and Madison.
His first job out of college was at Advanced Micro Devices, where he designed microprocessors from 1984 to 1985. He then moved to LSI Logic, working on a graphics engine project with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. He rose to director of LSI’s CoreWare division and stayed until 1993. While working in Silicon Valley, he finished a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1992.
Founding Nvidia
Huang, Malachowsky and Priem planned Nvidia at a Denny’s in East San Jose. The articles of incorporation were signed April 5, 1993, with initial capital of $600, $200 from each founder. Huang became president and CEO on the first day, at age 30. The company went public in 1999, and Wikipedia lists his stake at about 3.6 percent.
Time included him in its Time 100 list in 2021 and 2024. In 2025 he was among the “Architects of AI” the magazine named for its Person of the Year.
Giving back to Oregon State
The Huangs have kept their ties to the Corvallis campus. On Oct. 14, 2022, they announced a $50 million donation toward a research and education center at the university, a project reported at about $213 million.
The building carries the name Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex and sits at 2490 N.W. Monroe Ave. in Corvallis. According to the university’s project website, it will be home to a new AI supercomputer for students and researchers, with uses in climate science, oceanography, materials science and robotics. The site did not give an opening date or a cost.
The project site carries remarks from Huang and his wife about the gift, in which they say they hope it will inspire future generations of students in technology. The site does not state the amount of the gift or its terms, so the $50 million figure comes from the 2022 announcement as reported at the time.
It is a long way from a restaurant job in Washington County to the head of a $5 trillion company, and Huang’s path has run through Oregon at both ends.
Sources: Wikipedia; Oregon State University’s Huang Complex website.
Rosalind Teague covers ocean science, coastal hazards and the people who shaped the central coast.
