If you’re in the tech or startup world, you’ve no doubt been inundated with the news about Nvidia becoming the first company in history to reach the $4 trillion valuation mark, this week. But what you might not realize is that founder Jensen Huang has very strong Oregon ties.
Two years after Huang arrived in Oneida, his parents moved to the United States and settled in Beaverton, Oregon, where the brothers withdrew from school in Kentucky to live back with them.[20] As a teenager, Huang attended Aloha High School in Aloha, Oregon,[21] where he excelled academically. He skipped two grades, graduated at age sixteen, and became a nationally ranked table-tennis player in addition to being a member of its mathematics, computer, and science clubs.[14] Beginning at age 15,[22] Huang also got his first job working the graveyard shift[23] at a local Denny’s restaurant as a dishwasher, busboy, and waiter from 1978 to 1983.[24][25]
After high school, Huang chose to enroll in Oregon State University due to its low in-state tuition.[26] He studied electrical engineering and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1984 at age 20.[27] He later recalled, “I was the youngest kid in school, in class” and the only student who “looked like a child”.[28] Years later, while working as a microchip designer in Silicon Valley, he concurrently pursued graduate night classes at Stanford University, where he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1992.[14][29]…