$10.7 billion is currently earmarked for future philanthropic giving by Jensen and Lori Huang’s nonprofit

As Nvidia rockets past a $4 trillion market cap, another remarkable milestone is unfolding more quietly: the exponential growth of CEO Jensen Huang’s philanthropic footprint.

The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, launched in 2007 with just 370,000 shares of Nvidia stock valued at $12.6 million, is now estimated to hold assets exceeding $10.7 billion, making it one of the largest private foundations in the United States.

The foundation’s rise has mirrored the stunning ascent of Nvidia itself—from a niche graphics-chip maker to the most valuable publicly traded company on Earth.

That transformation, driven by Huang’s early bet on AI hardware, has made him a defining figure of the generative AI era—and an unexpectedly major force in philanthropy.

The foundation held over 6.8 million Nvidia shares by the end of 2023 (equivalent to approximately 68.5 million shares following the company’s 10-for-1 stock split in June 2024), translating to a market value of $3.4 billion at the time.

With Nvidia shares more than tripling over the past year, the foundation’s current assets are estimated at roughly $10.7 billion—a staggering figure for a nonprofit that operates with no website, no paid staff, and virtually no public profile.

The foundation’s lean structure is not unusual for billionaire-run giving vehicles. But what makes the Huang Foundation especially distinctive is its heavy concentration in a single stock, a strategy shared with just a handful of major philanthropies like Elon Musk’s Tesla-based foundation or the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, which relies on Coca-Cola stock.

Despite its massive balance sheet, Huang’s giving has largely flown under the radar. A Taiwanese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child dishwasher in rural Kentucky, Huang has often spoken about humility and long-range thinking—values that echo in his philanthropy. While he avoids splashy announcements or naming-rights deals, his foundation has made meaningful, targeted gifts, especially in higher education and health care.

In 2023, the foundation disbursed $46 million, with more than three-quarters directed into a donor-advised fund at Schwab Charitable. That approach—common among tech philanthropists—allows for tax efficiency and strategic planning but is often criticized for its lack of transparency, as DAFs are not required to distribute funds on a fixed timeline.

Still, Huang’s past donations offer insight into his philanthropic focus. He and his wife, Lori, a fellow Oregon State alum, have made multimillion-dollar gifts to Stanford University, Oregon State University, and, most recently, $22.5 million to the California College of the Arts—the largest donation in the school’s history.

In 2022, they also gave $50 million to Oregon Health & Science University to build a state-of-the-art biomedical data science center.

What unites these contributions is a consistent theme: a belief in the transformative power of education, science, and computation to unlock human potential. “Our goal is to invest in the institutions that will help solve the world’s most important challenges,” Huang said during a rare public appearance at CCA earlier this year. “We’re not just building labs or classrooms—we’re building futures.”

Unlike many tech titans who’ve launched splashy philanthropic brands or pledged to give away the bulk of their wealth, Huang has taken a quieter route—eschewing formal affiliations with the Giving Pledge and steering clear of major philanthropic conferences.

But with more than $10 billion in assets, the Huang Foundation is now larger than the Ford Foundation and rapidly approaching the scale of institutions like the Hewlett Foundation.

The only question now is how—and when—Huang and his family will begin deploying that capital on a large scale.

In an era when AI is poised to transform every aspect of human life, the philanthropic choices of its pioneers will have a profound impact.

If Jensen Huang’s investments in silicon gave us the future of computing, his investments in people may help shape the future of society.