Jensen isn’t the only one living the GPU-gold dream. The other co-founders, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, also own slices of the pie—though much smaller. Chris owns about 0.08% (that’s like finding a quarter under the couch cushion), and Curtis owns 0.04% (a dime). Hey, those dimes are now worth over a billion dollars each. Talk about a lucky couch.
Institutional investors like Vanguard and BlackRock actually own way more of Nvidia than Jensen does. They’re the quiet giants holding about 15% and 7% respectively. But here’s the twist: Jensen’s voting power is much stronger than his actual ownership. He has special shares that give him 10 votes per share, while regular investors get one. So while he only owns 3.5% of the company, he controls about 50% of the voting power. That’s the financial equivalent of being the dungeon master in a game of D&D—he holds the rulebook, even if everyone else has more dice.
How did he build this empire?
Jensen started Nvidia in 1993 with just $40,000 and a vision to make video games look incredibly cool. He wasn’t born rich—his parents were immigrants, and he worked as a dishwasher at Denny’s. Yes, a dishwasher. Today, he owns a stake worth more than the GDP of many countries. If that’s not a “rags to silicon riches” story, I don’t know what is.
Interestingly, Jensen has never taken a massive salary or bonus. In fact, his base salary is $1 per year. That’s not a typo. He’s the guy who literally works for a dollar. But hey, when you’re sitting on $87 billion worth of stock, you can afford to be generous with your time. (And also buy a lot of Denny’s Grand Slam breakfasts.)
Jensen Huang's Net Worth Surges to $120 Billion on Nvidia Earnings - 24
Now, if you’re thinking, “Can I buy just 0.0001% of Nvidia to feel cool?”—absolutely! But you’d need about $2.5 million at current prices. Or, you know, you can just buy a single share for around $400 and pretend you’re in the boardroom. Jensen probably won’t notice, but you will feel like a genius.
