Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, isn’t just a technology and business genius – he also developed a successful marriage strategy as a teenager.
During one Speech last weekend at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technologywho awarded him an honorary doctorate, the Silicon Valley titan looked back on his time at Oregon State University and said he was only 16 when he started and only 17 when he met his future wife, then 19 was old.
“I was the youngest child in the school, in the class. There were 250 students and three girls,” Huang said. “I was the only student who looked like a child and they were all children.”
He attended OSU from 1980 to 1984. According to the schoolhis first-year lab partner in fundamental electrical engineering was Lori Mills.
Knowing that his youthful appearance stood out, Huang said he was sure their first impression of him was that he must be very smart.
“So I walked up to her and said, ‘Do you want to see my homework?'” he remembers.
Huang then promised that Lori would get an A if they did homework together every Sunday. That’s why he had a “date” every Sunday.
He made extra use of their study sessions by making them do homework all day, ensuring they spent the entire Sunday together.
When he was 20, Huang tried even harder to ensure that they would get married by vowing to become CEO by the time he was 30.
“I had no idea what I was talking about,” he admitted. “And then we got married. That’s all I will advise all entrepreneurs.”
Huang also revealed that he did his homework in advance so that he would have all the answers and look like a genius when he and Lori compared their notes.
They married five years after meeting, according to OSU. And actually, when he was co-founder of Nvidia in 1993 and became CEO when he was 30.
Fast forward to 2024: Huang is No. 2 Fortune’s List of 100 the most powerful people in business. Nvidia is a chip giant driving the artificial intelligence boom, and its AI hyperscaler customers can’t get enough of its processors.
The company’s market capitalization was about $3.4 trillion as of Friday’s close, and Nvidia has traded with Apple as the world’s most valuable company at times this year.