NVIDIA and AMD are two of the most prominent global chip manufacturers, and both have been in increased focus since the AI revolution, which has required extensive use of their chips. But there’s more that connects the two companies.
The CEOs of NVIDIA and AMD are cousins. NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who is now one of the richest 20 people in the world after a surge in the price of NVIDIA stock, is the cousin of current AMD CEO Lisa Su. Both Huang and Su were born in Taiwan, and eventually migrated to the United States. The two cousins helm two of the biggest chip-making firms in the world.
Jensen Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963. His family emigrated to Thailand when he was 5, and when he was 9, he was sent to the US to live with an uncle. Huang graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University and with a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. In 1993, when he was 30 years old, he founded NVIDIA. NVIDIA became a successful company in its own right by the 2000s, but has exploded in value in recent years, after its chips began being used in AI applications. NVIDIA is currently the third most valuable company in the world behind only Apple and Saudi Aramco, and Jensen Huang is the 17th richest person on the planet.
This is quite a hard act to live up to, but his cousin has come close. Huang’s cousin, Lisa Su, was also born in Taiwan 1969. She and her parents emigrated to the United States when she was 3. Su graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT, and then followed it up with a Master’s degree and PhD from the same institution. She worked with companies including Texas Instruments, IBM and and Freescale Semiconductor over the next two decades, before becoming the CEO of AMD in 2014.
NVIDIA and AMD are currently the two biggest chipmakers in the world. AMD is best known for its microprocessors and chipsets, and its Ryzen range competes with Intel’s chips. NVIDIA produces GPUs which are used in AI applications, and has a virtual monopoly on the segment. And these two companies — which are currently critical to the future of technology, and indeed, of humanity — are being run by a pair of cousins.