Nvidia Co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang isn’t just a tech and business wizard—he also devised a successful marriage strategy as a teenager.
During a speech last weekend at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technologywho awarded him an honorary degree, the Silicon Valley titan reflected on his time at Oregon State University, saying he was just 16 when he started and just 17 when he met his future wife, who was 19 at the time.
“I was the youngest child at school, in my class. There were 250 students and three girls,” Huang said. “I was the only student who looked like a child, and everyone was a child.”
He attended OSU from 1980 to 1984. According to the schoolhis lab partner in the first year of electrical engineering was Lori Mills.
Knowing that his youthful appearance stood out, Huang said he was sure her 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 recalled.
Huang then promised that if they worked together every Sunday, Lori would get a straight A. As a result, he had a “date” every Sunday.
He further leveraged their studies by having her do her homework all day, ensuring that they spent the entire Sunday together.
When he was 20, Huang sought to further ensure they were married by vowing to be a CEO by the time he was 30.
“I had no idea what I was talking about,” he admitted. “And then we got married. That is all the advice I will give to all entrepreneurs.”
Huang also revealed that he did his homework ahead of time so he would have all the answers and look like a genius as he and Lori compared notes.
Five years after meeting, they got married, according to OSU. And sure enough, when he co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and became CEO, he was 30 years old.
Fast forward to 2024: Huang is #2 Fortune list of 100 the most powerful people in business. Nvidia is a chip giant, driving the artificial intelligence boom, and customers of its AI hyperscalers can’t get enough of its processors.
The company’s market capitalization was about $3.4 trillion by Friday’s market close, with Nvidia swapping places with Apple this year as the most valuable company in the world.
