Nvidia CEO Enjoys Taipei Street Culture Ahead of Computex Keynote

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Billionaire caught pondering over dried fruits in one of the city's night markets.

Jensen Huang enjoying a night market
(Image credit: CW Lin)

Nvidia's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, has been spotted acclimatizing in Taipei in the run-up to the big Computex show. Far from his now settled home life in San Francisco's Billionaire's Row area, the Taiwanese American tech boss was enjoying the atmospheric sights, sounds (and smells?) of one of Taipei's many night market areas. Huang lived in Taiwan until age nine, when his family moved to Portland, Oregon.

In the tweet embedded above, you can see Huang was snapped pondering over dried fruits at a night market. CW Lin, who took the photo, mused over the sight of the CEO walking through such a humble market, carrier bag in hand.

Earlier this week, we reported on Nvidia's extraordinary stock surge. Investor speculation about the fortunes of AI technology businesses has fuelled this explosive valuation growth, and Nvidia is one of the linchpins of this business. Holding 3.51% of company stock (over 86M shares), Huang's net worth has ballooned from just over $26 billion a fortnight ago to over $34 billion today.

CW Lin's image of Huang doesn't appear to show evidence of a security detail with the Nvidia CEO. However, the latest financial statements published by Nvidia show that the chief executive's security expenses were up over 750% in the last year, totaling $700,000. Does he not need security personnel in Taipei, or are they so good we don't even know they are there?

The last time we saw Huang on the streets of Taipei was last November when he was captured 'video-bombing' some bemused karaoke singers and making a Lady Gaga song request. He was in the city for the WirForce 2022 eSports Carnival.

On Monday, Nvidia's CEO will take to the stage at Computex 2023 to deliver a special keynote address. As a PC-centric consumer show, we hope to hear some exciting details about new and upcoming GeForce hardware and software technologies. However, it was made clear in the most recent set of financials that gaming now brings in approximately half the revenue the data center business generates.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Makaveli
    His security is definitely there you just can't see them in the shot.

    It's mandatory when you are worth that much.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Random trip out to a public place is safer than his scheduled events as long as he keeps moving and doesn't spend hours in a single location.

    It would be interesting to hear him talk about what he remembers from his young childhood in Taiwan and if travel as an adult triggered any memories. I find what our memory considers significant and how it remembers fascinating. For this topic the fact that he is a "famous" Billionaire is unimportant.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    That picture just looks fake to me, he just stands out from the background to much for me.
    Reply
  • ManDaddio
    The photo could be fake but I'd guess it isn't for now. It may look odd but that is likely because whoever took the picture was likely not close and had to zoom in a bit.
    Reply
  • BFG-9000
    He's in disguise, it's not like people could recognize him without his trademark leather jacket. Look at Superman, nobody can tell he's Clark Kent without glasses.
    Reply
  • wbfox
    This makes me totally forget he's a price gouging scam artist!
    Reply