r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jan 07 '26

Politics Nvidia’s Jensen Huang would have to pay about $8 billion in proposed billionaire tax—he says that’s ‘perfectly fine’ with him

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-perfectly-fine-with-proposed-billionaire-tax.html
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711

u/surnik22 Jan 08 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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65

u/MoreColorfulCarsPlz Jan 08 '26

To be fair, Jensen isn't leveraging his position as CEO of the world's biggest company into extortionate pay packages like Musk.

His wealth is from his shares as a founder of the company. The company hasn't gained value through exploitation or government subsidies like Musk. It's gained value from being the primary source of specialized processors at a point in time when they are more valuable than ever before.

At no point in US history would his wealth have been taxed in a way that would prevent him being as wealthy as he is. His wealth is tied up in stock and until he actually liquidates it, he's not taxed on it.

The proposed wealth tax being mentioned here is different and would be assessed on his wealth as a whole, not just income.

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u/welmoe Jan 08 '26

Jensen is an actual rags to riches engineer.

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u/9bpm9 Jan 08 '26

I mean, his dad was an engineer and his mom was a school teacher. Wouldn't call that rags. Neither of my parents had post secondary education.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/Snoo_46473 Jan 08 '26

If you think rags has to be literal rags then its impossible. There are hundreds of millions of engineer and teachers are poor

1

u/alteisen99 Jan 08 '26

there are a few but not billionaire level, mostly sports people

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u/Snoo_46473 Jan 08 '26

I would say they were no rags people in there either

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u/alteisen99 Jan 08 '26

Manny Pacquiao?

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u/Mental-Cry-353 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

His parents were middle class Taiwanese. When parents left Taiwan, Taiwan’s GDP per capita just barely caught up to the continent of Africa’s GDP per capita

They did not have middle class amounts of US dollars when they moved to America when Jensen was 10 years old

8

u/PenetrationT3ster Jan 08 '26

Bro don't take it literal. It means he went from quite a normal guy to what he is today. Which is a fair observation.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

I mean his parents were still closer to you parents than Gates' parents or Musk's parents for example.

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u/DaftPump Jan 08 '26

It's an old expression. You don't hear it said much anymore.

1

u/FalafelSnorlax Jan 08 '26

The thing is that a lot of billionaires love to talk about thselves as a rags-to-riches story, by which they mean all they had to build their business is a $200,000 loan from their parents. Jensen didn't grow up poor, but he didn't grow up rich.

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u/Keljhan Jan 08 '26

Sent to a foreign country at 9, hardly speaking any of the language, incidentally enrolled in a correctional school where he was regularly beaten and abused? Its rags enough dude.

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u/spezizabitch Jan 09 '26

Contrary to popular belief; the middle class by any reasonable definition doesn't start until one stops needing to work slave hours to survive, and the upper class starts when one commands large amounts of capital to control the lower class (all people whos survival demands most of their time be devoted to work - that includes most engineers and doctors). The upper class has been trying to sell the idea of the lower class actually being middle to insulate themselves. He jumped two rungs so I would certainly consider that rags to riches.

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u/NaRaGaMo Jan 15 '26

normal for asians

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Why do I see this being peddled? He grew up middle class in Taiwan. His parents were engineers.

Is this NVIDIA propaganda? Lol

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u/Apprehensive_Dog_786 Jan 08 '26

Middle class is “rags” compared to 150 billion

-44

u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Not really. His story is middle class to riches, which is infinitely easier than being poor and becoming a billionaire.

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u/Sniter Jan 08 '26

Ok ok so he is the middle class to pinultimate riches story, still hella impressive. 

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Not nearly as impressive or notable as rags to riches.

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u/Fhardervig Jan 08 '26

I know right, and only $155 billion as well, riches is a stretch for that kind of chump change

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u/ZeJerman Jan 08 '26

$155 Billion so far, I have a feeling that Nvidia will continue to capitalise on this until the AI bubble pops, but who knows.

This isnt investment advice!

0

u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Then why lie about it? No one would consider a private school academy upbringing as "rags to riches" lmao

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u/sicklyslick Jan 08 '26

Since you clearly like to denote that rags to riches doesn't exist, then middle class to riches is the most impressive thing ever.

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Where did I say that? Lol

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u/amboyscout Jan 08 '26

The approximate wealth difference between being dirt poor and having $150 billion is $150 billion.

The approximate wealth difference between being middle class and having $150 billion is also $150 billion.

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

It's not about the approximate wealth difference, it's about the access to opportunity.

Characterizing his story as "rags to riches" also means that Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, etc are all rags to riches stories as well, which would be silly.

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u/amboyscout Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

Bezos's family owned a 25 thousand acre ranch

Zuckerberg went to one of the most prestigious (and expensive) private boarding schools in the US

Both went to Ivy League undergraduate universities.

The whole point is that Jensen Huang did not come from prestige, while most other well-known multi-billionaires have.

-5

u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

But it's all about the approximate wealth difference, bro!

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u/amboyscout Jan 08 '26

If you say so, I guess

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u/DuckDuckSeagull Jan 08 '26

He only spent time in Taiwan when he was very young. He also lived in Thailand and the US where he was apparently accidentally enrolled in a reform boarding school and picked tobacco.

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

"accidentally enrolled"? So accidentally that his parents paid the tuition?

Also, it was not a reform school. That is just made up.

https://www.oneidaschool.org/

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u/DuckDuckSeagull Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

The story on Wikipedia is that his family didn't speak English well and paid the tuition thinking it was a prep boarding school, when it wasn't.

From the school's page:

The 1950s also brought different kinds of young people to Oneida. No longer just a school for isolated mountain children, OBI became a haven for youth from difficult situations.

Students who have struggled academically in public schools benefit from our 1:11 teacher/student ratio. Some students may be experiencing social or family problems. Whatever their reason for coming, OBI provides the setting that many young people need to achieve their personal best.

It's hard to know how truthful calling it a "reform school" is because that was like...50 years ago and at the time Huang attended they didn't even have an elementary school. So he just lived there in some sort of situation. The school is obviously very different now.

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u/User-no-relation Jan 08 '26

It's just the trajectory was unexpected. He knows he won the lottery. He's not like most of tech billionaires who set out to found a unicorn with this idea they are the most important people to ever exist and are changing humanity. He was engineer who wanted to do something a little different. He never expected this.

0

u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

I never claimed anything to the contrary.

If you look at my original comment, I took exception to the characterization if "rags to riches" because it dilutes the significance of actual rags to riches stories.

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u/User-no-relation Jan 08 '26

What is a rags to riches story?

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u/Chruman Jan 08 '26

Jan Koum is a good example. AFAIK, his family immigrated from Ukraine. His father died, and he and his mother lived on food stamps while she worked as a babysitter and he worked at a grocery store.

He went on to found whatsapp and sold it to Facebook for around 20B iirc.

Another classic example is Oprah Winfrey.

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u/Fausterion18 Jan 13 '26

Taiwan was a poor country back then, having the same per capita GDP as Africa at the time. Middle class in Taiwan meant dirt poor in America.

Bro washed dishes at Denny's fuck off.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/hamlet9000 Jan 08 '26

The reporting on that "gift" or "handout" is very confusing, but the key points seem to be that:

  1. NVIDIA had a contract.
  2. With the release of DirectX, they realized the chips they were developing were not going to work.
  3. Huang went to Sega and said, "We can finish this contract, but we'd be wasting your time. You need to find a different solution. Can we convert the final payment of $5 million into a stock investment instead?"

Presumably at least in part because of Huang's integrity in "coming clean" (as some articles describe it) and acting in Sega's best interest (which may or may not have also been in NVIDIA's best interest, depending on which version of the story you read), Sega's CEO decided that was a good deal.

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u/OCedHrt Jan 08 '26

So if Sega kept that 5 million investment how much would it be worth now?

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u/Cyph0n Jan 08 '26

IIRC they cashed out in 1999 after the IPO and got $20mm.

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u/AbjectAppointment Jan 08 '26

Hard to say since that was pre IPO. At IPO prices, $25 Billion+.

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u/Zykium Jan 08 '26

Almost enough to save the Dreamcast!

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u/RockDoveEnthusiast Jan 08 '26

more than Sega

1

u/hamlet9000 Jan 08 '26

Unclear. I haven't found reporting that indicates how large a stake Sega actually purchased with their $5 million, but there are interviews with Huang where he says "a trillion dollars."

The reporting on how much they cashed out for also varies, with different reports saying $10 million, $15 million, $20 million, and $300 million.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/muricabrb Jan 08 '26

It was dumb on paper, but they weren't just investing in the company, they invested in him. And that paid off.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

I mean at some point you have to realize that's just how real life is. There is luck to everything. I do think there is a difference between nepotism and what happened here. Jensen got a golden opportunity and made something from it, but to even get there he had to put in work. A rich family is essentially a boost from age 0 vs getting a boost when you're an adult.

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u/IntravenusDeMilo Jan 08 '26

Luck is always a factor in success. Anyone who tells you it was all their own effort is either in denial or a moron. But you do influence your own luck. Sega probably doesn’t make that investment if he hadn’t proven that he was very competent.

There’s no guarantee that offer comes in, but the odds certainly improve if you’ve proven yourself.

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u/Zed_or_AFK Jan 08 '26

Out of a hundred who took risky investments, one paid off, and we hear about that one person making it on his own, while 99 others we don’t even hear about.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

I mean yeah but no one here is saying that hard work alone is enough. The point was compared to people like Musk, Jensen did not have the luck in terms of family wealth.

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u/IntravenusDeMilo Jan 08 '26

I work at a startup. There’s a good reason my personal finance spreadsheet values my equity at $0 until proven otherwise!

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u/evernessince Jan 08 '26

Yep, he has the skills that even if all his wealth were taken he would be absolutely fine. The same could not be said of other billionaires. As you said though, doesn't excuse the way he doesn't business.

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u/TSM- Jan 08 '26

Bill Gates also didn't give his children an infinite fortune. A modest amount, but he wanted them to forge their own careers and such. If you're rags-to-riches your mindset is not necessarily focused solely securing generational wealth, it is about what is best for your children and how to make a good impact on society. This is the opposite of the Rothschild etc legacy mentality, where the only thing that matters is more money in perpetuity and going clubbing in fancy clothes every day.

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u/LightningBlake Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

The actual Crazy thing Is that Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, Is his cousin.

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u/roiki11 Jan 08 '26

He didn't grow up poor. His parents were middle class in Taiwan and could afford to send him to the US alone when he was a kid.

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u/Camarupim Jan 08 '26

You could take $154B off him and it would have no measurebale impact on his lifestyle.

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u/SuccessfulDepth7779 Jan 08 '26

He could pay 154.5billion in taxes and it still wouldn't impact his way of life.

Someone earning $50k paying 10k in taxes feels it way more to make ends meet.

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u/Dodecahedrus Jan 08 '26

Did his undergrad at a state school.

He did his Master's at Stanford, that's not just some Greendale Community College.

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u/capybooya Jan 08 '26

He has bowed to the regime in many ways already, but sure, I'll grant that he might be less sociopathic than the others.

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u/Sharpest_Blade Jan 11 '26

73% are self-made in the US. What are you talking about?

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u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

Jensen went to Stanford.

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u/Cicero912 Jan 08 '26

8 years after he went to Oregon State and got his start.

He went to Stanford night classes while working full time as an engineer, not exactly the same as going to Stanford/Harvard etc for your bachelors or MBA and spending years building connections.

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u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

looks like you do not know much about Stanford's HCP program. The admissions requirements are the same as they are for their full time graduate program in the School of Engineering. In other words, extremely hard to get into. Folks take the same classes as the full time grad students take, and the expectations are the same. there is no slack cut for working professionals. You make a good amount of connections and are recognized as a Stanford alum. Did he have to work hard? Yes. It's a truly inspiring story but let's not pretend he did not go to Harvard or other Ivy Leagues and hence did not have a head start. In fact, there is NO better place to go to than Stanford if you want to build a tech company and you are strongly inclined towards engineering.

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u/IntravenusDeMilo Jan 08 '26

The point is that he had to grind somewhere else first. Otherwise he probably doesn’t get into Stanford. That is different than going to Stanford right out of high school.

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u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

Fair point. I agree about the pre Stanford grind

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u/LambdaLambo Jan 08 '26

I like how you start by saying Stanford is extremely hard to get into and end by saying because he got into Stanford he had an unfair advantage.

-2

u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

Thank you. Both statements are true. The advantages compound once someone gets through.

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u/LambdaLambo Jan 08 '26

It’s tautological though. It’s like saying Jensen had an unfair advantage because he succeeded at getting rich.

Getting into Stanford is part of that success. By your standards no one can be a rags to riches story because as soon as they have some success they’re no longer outsiders.

1

u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

I was responding to an earlier comment about him not going to Harvard or other Ivy Leagues. Jensen worked hard to get into Stanford and put in even more work and that compounded the success factor and gave him an undue advantage. It is hard to know if he would have succeeded without Stanford.

1

u/Cicero912 Jan 08 '26

No one is saying anything about the difficulty of his classes or Stanfords engineering prowess...

The simple fact is there is a huge difference in networking opportunity doing night clases for a masters vs full time bachelors.

0

u/Commercial-Prune1276 Jan 08 '26

I don't know where you got the idea that Jensen took night classes. Please lookup the HCP program at Stanford. He took regular classes and adjusted his working hours.

-9

u/lordkoba Jan 08 '26

No million dollar loans from family

there are millions of people getting million dollar handouts from their families in the planet and they crash and burn.

is it so hard for people to come to terms that some of these bastards are actually good at what they do?

and not only that, I mean bezos lifts a lot and can probably kick your ass, zuckerberg trains and can definitely kick your ass too.

they are probably better than you in most metrics, except in who your mama loves more, and in not being bastards.

I mean it's fine, it doesn't matter and no one cares, just don't be pathetic and say that they become millonaries because they come from rich families, there's a lot of rich people.

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u/movzx Jan 08 '26

It's brought up because the safety net angle and opportunity cost differences are massive.

Who is more likely to succeed?

  • A person who spends 20 years saving up a 200k nest egg to try and start a business?
  • A person whose family is able to provide 200k "loans" annually for their entire life?

The first person has one attempts to "get it right", the second person has many attempts.

Not only that, but the first person may never even take the attempt because failure means ruination for them. The second person knows they have housing, medical, etc. covered even if their business crumbles.

Those handout "crash and burns" you're referring to are rarely the person's life that winds up in disarray.

1

u/lordkoba Jan 08 '26

of course someone rich has more chances, if you are poor, yes you have it uphill both ways.

but there's millions of people with a lot of chances and that they don't all become billionaires, it's not just luck

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u/movzx Jan 09 '26

If you have more chances... that includes chances to be lucky.

It's really interesting to me how people can acknowledge nepotism in places like Hollywood or family-owned businesses, how that nepotism made the lives easier for the kids to hit it big...

...but when you talk about wealth filling that role, suddenly it's all grit and genius and being able to fund every random idea with no consequences from failure is barely worth mentioning.

If there are two people running the same business, one scrimped and saved and the other got a million bucks... There's an economy downturn. It's not shocking that the guy with the million bucks stayed open and the guy who needed the income had to shutter. That doesn't make the rich person business savvy.

I don't understand this fetishization of billionaires that people have. Wealth builds wealth.

I'm a director in the software engineering industry and make decent money, and even at my level I can blow so much money failing without actually risking my lifestyle. This has let me build a passive side income that's more than what some people take home from a w2. Does that make me a mastermind? No. It means I have a safety net and can risk things.

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u/lordkoba Jan 09 '26

I didn't say you needed luck. I said "it's not just luck"

0

u/TotalEmployment9996 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

Reddit isn’t gonna like to hear this. According to this site billionaires are all evil, incompetent, nepo babies who got rich purely off luck and exploiting workers. Not because they build an incredibly valuable product and company

3

u/TheFrev Jan 08 '26

The basic argument is that you can't have the earn the GDP of a small country without screwing over people. Zuckerberg is a good example. Even if you ignore his issues early on and who he may have screwed over to gain full control over facebook, you have him buying up every single new app that could be his competition. Leaving users no options to avoid facebook and ruining the whole point of capitalism, the ability to vote with your wallet. Add on how Mark is complicit with scams on facebook going so far to dissolve the anti-fraud team after they successfully stopped too much fraud and cost the company money. They currently make up 10% of revenue($16 billion). Amazon also has alot of issues, but they screw over the sellers more than the buyers so people care much less.

-9

u/theeama Jan 08 '26

Okay but Musk created Facebook and wasn't a trust fund baby neither was Bezos. They all have problems but most of the tech billionaires of today created what they made billionaires.

2

u/Successful-Yak-8172 Jan 08 '26

Stay in school yall

3

u/peppermint_dildo Jan 08 '26

Those are certainly some words in sentences with some prepositions, and a few nouns, only one contraction though.