Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's net worth has climbed $27.5 billion this year to $182 billion, making him the world's eighth-richest person. The surge tracks Nvidia's rise into the most valuable public company on the planet, driven by its grip on the AI chip market.
Huang's fortune tracks Nvidia's record run
Huang's net worth reached $182 billion this year, up $27.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. That places him just behind Meta's Mark Zuckerberg as the eighth-richest person in the world.
The jump traces directly to Nvidia's own numbers. Nvidia's stock is up 18% this year, and Huang owns 4% of the company. Nvidia's market cap now stands at $5.32 trillion, making it the most valuable public corporation in the world.
Meta's 2024 statement on chip spending
Nvidia's rise did not happen overnight. The company, founded in 1993, grew from a graphics chip maker into the leader in AI chips as the technology evolved in a direction that favored its hardware.
According to CNBC, Mark Zuckerberg said on January 18, 2024 that Meta was spending billions of dollars on Nvidia's chips for its artificial intelligence work. Nvidia's stock traded at $68 before that statement and trades at $220 today.
Nvidia's reach now extends beyond chips
Nvidia holds 90% of the highest-end AI chip market, but its influence does not stop there. The company has also invested tens of billions of dollars in AI industry leaders, including Anthropic and OpenAI, positions that presumably will be worth more over time. Much of that money flows back into Nvidia chip purchases, which lifts its own revenue.
Some investors object to the arrangement, though no accounting rules prevent it. It has also become a financier for the wider industry, recently pledging as much as $105 billion to build a data center for OpenAI in Ohio.
Huang proves an old adage: financially, very few people are an overnight success.
Source: 24/7 Wall St.
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