What just happened? The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has announced that Huang is the 2021 recipient of the Robert N. Noyce Award. The award was created in 1990 to recognize individuals for their outstanding achievement and leadership in support of the semiconductor industry and is named after one of the co-founders of chipmaker Intel.
"Jensen Huang's extraordinary vision and tireless execution have greatly strengthened our industry, revolutionized computing, and advanced artificial intelligence," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO.
Huang, who had previously served as a microprocessor designer for AMD, founded Nvidia in 1993 alongside Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, and has served as the company's CEO ever since. Nvidia played a major role in helping to further PC gaming with early products like the RIVA TNT and the GeForce 256.
Huang will accept the award during the SIA Awards Dinner on November 18 at the San Jose Marriott in in San Jose, California.
"I am honored to receive the 2021 Noyce Award and do so on behalf of my colleagues at NVIDIA, whose body of work this award recognizes," Huang noted. He said it has been a great joy and privilege to have grown up with the semiconductor and computer industries.
"As we enter the era of AI, robotics, digital biology, and the metaverse, we will see super-exponential technology advances," Huang added.
Huang is also a recipient of the IEEE Founder's Medal and the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award. In addition to his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, he also holds honorary doctorate degrees from Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University, National Taiwan University and Oregon State University.
Past award recipients include AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su, Intel's Gordon Moore and Micron's Steve Appleton.