Nvidia's Jensen Huang won over his wife with college homework & a promise of 'straight As'

Jensen Huang is married to Lori and they have two children.

When Jensen Huang, now the CEO of Nvidia, was a 17-year-old freshman at Oregon State University, US, he used an unconventional strategy to win over his future wife, Lori. The odds were stacked against him—he was the youngest in his class, outnumbered in a cohort of 250 students with only three women, and appeared more like a “child,” by his own admission.

Yet, with a mix of charm, determination, and a promise to share his homework, Huang made a deal that would define his personal life.

Speaking at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology last week, after receiving an honorary degree, Huang recounted how he first approached Lori, then a 19-year-old sophomore.

"I walked up to her and said, ‘Do you want to see my homework? If you do homework with me every Sunday, I promise you, you will get straight As,’” Huang shared during the event. The unorthodox proposal worked. Sundays became their unofficial date days, eventually leading to their marriage five years later.

The couple now has two children—Madison, a marketing director at Nvidia, and Spencer, a senior product manager.

After earning his degree in electrical engineering from OSU in 1984, Huang worked at chip companies like LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices. In 1992, he added a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University to his credentials, a year before founding Nvidia at the age of 30.

Today, Huang stands as the 11th richest person globally, with Nvidia leading the charge in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. The company, valued at a staggering $3.6 trillion as of November 22, has surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company.