How Silicon Valley's leather-jacketed rock star CEO turned Nvidia into ... trends now

The journey of Nvidia from one of Silicon Valley's earliest tech startups to a trillion-dollar leader in the artificial intelligence revolution began at a roadside Denny's diner in 1993.

Jensen Huang, who's been the firm's CEO since day one, munched a Super Bird sandwich with mayo and mustard while chatting with his two fellow co-founders about the potential for a company that specialized in computer chips to render graphics.

Thirty years and at least one brush with bankruptcy later, Nvidia is the hottest stock on Wall Street and the self-proclaimed 'world leader in artificial intelligence' - after stumbling into the booming sector almost by accident.

In that time, Huang, 60, has also transformed: from a slightly geeky and unassuming computer scientist to a leather-jacket sporting, tattooed CEO with ambitions to become a 'robot' so he can spent decades longer at the company's helm.

Nvidia's brief rise into the $1 trillion club on Tuesday made it one of only a handful of companies in history to breach the valuation. The chipmaker - whose market capitalization was $952 billion on Wednesday afternoon - is now worth around $300 million more than better-known tech behemoths like Tesla and Meta.

Since January, the price of Nvidia's stock has increased by a staggering 169 percent - from $143 to $386 currently. In the last seven days alone, the share price has risen by around a third.

Those recent gains align closely with the explosion in interest in AI following the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. The chatbot, which placed the power of generative AI at the fingertips of the masses, has shown the power, potential, and perils, of this life-changing technology.

It's also sent investors into overdrive as they look to cash in on the revolution. 

Nvidia now places itself firmly at the center of the AI boom - and that's thanks to the vision, charisma and lofty ambitions of Huang, whose net worth has doubled to $35 billion in the past year thanks to his company's success.

He's now a rock star of Silicon Valley who's earned a place along the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as tech leaders who are reshaping the world.

Huang has also adopted some of the quirks of the stereotypical tech billionaire. He's had the Nvidia logo tattooed on his left arm, and the leather jacket he wears for major announcements has been likened to Apple founder Steve Jobs' affection for black turtle neck sweaters.

And in March this year, Huang even spoke about becoming a 'robot' so he could continue running his company for years into the future.

'In another four decades, I'll be robotic. And, maybe another three or four decades after that. So hopefully I'll get to enjoy this for a very long time,' he said.