'Waiter, busboy, dishwasher': Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's work experience before hitting big

Jensen Huang says he wakes up at 5 am to run his $3 trillion company, Nvidia. (Image: Reuters)

Jensen Huang’s journey to becoming one of the world’s richest individuals began far from the world of high-tech innovation and billion-dollar valuations. In the late 1970s, Huang wasn’t building cutting-edge technology or steering a global corporation; he was scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, and serving tables at a Denny's diner in the US. Today, that same man is the CEO of Nvidia, the world's most valuable public company, with a net worth that has skyrocketed to place him as the 12th richest person globally, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Huang, a workaholic who starts his day at 5am to run his trillion-dollar company, has two past job experiences listed on his LinkedIn profile.

He founded Nvidia in 1993 and has held the position of CEO since then. Before this, for five years from 1978 to 83, Huang donned several hats at Denny’s, an American diner style restaurant chain – as a waiter, busboy and a dishwasher.

He completed his college from Oregon State University and then clinched a Master's degree from Stanford in 1992.

Huang, 61, has often spoken and reflected on his early years, and his work ethics.

"To me, no task is beneath me because, remember, I used to be a dishwasher. I used to clean toilets. I cleaned a lot of toilets. I've cleaned more toilets than all of you combined," he shared during an interview at Stanford's Graduate School of Business in March this year.

He believes in the value of all work and is not afraid to get his hands dirty—a principle that has earned him respect and admiration within the industry. "If you send me something and you want my input on it and I can be of service to you—and, in my review of it, share with you how I reasoned through it—I've made a contribution to you," Huang remarked during the same interview.

Nvidia’s success has been nothing short of phenomenal, with the company’s stock surging by 3,776% since 2019, largely fuelled by the booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. In June, this surge added over $4 billion to Huang’s net worth in a single day.

Employees at Nvidia have recently reported working under intense conditions, often putting in seven-day weeks and staying at their desks until 2 am and many do not quit due to the company’s substantial compensation packages, recent reports have revealed.

Former and current employees described the Californian workplace as highly demanding, with a culture that includes frequent meetings marked by tension and even shouting. A former marketing employee recounted attending as many as 10 meetings a day, each involving more than 30 participants.