What just happened? Time's 100 most influential people of 2021 list has arrived. Elon Musk and Tim Cook are two big tech names to make appearances, but the biggest honor goes to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who was not only included but also one of seven people to get their own front cover.
Nvidia has reached the point where even many non-techies know the company's name. Its graphics cards dominate the industry, as reflected in the Steam survey, while the Tegra SoC continues to power the Nintendo Switch---the firm's effect on the gaming industry can definitely be described as influential. There are also its business/science-focused products, Nvidia Shield, vehicle systems, GeForce Now, and more.
Andrew Ng, a founder of DeepLearning.AI, highlights Nvidia's artificial intelligence work in Huang's bio, where he describes him as one of the world's most technically savvy CEOs.
Huang completed his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1992 before co-founding Nvidia in 1993. He has been CEO ever since. Huang is also set to receive the Robert N. Noyce Award on November 18, considered the semiconductor industry's highest honor.
Nvidia's share price was hovering around $4 in 2011. Today, it is $223. The company has a market cap of $558.53 billion, and it continues with its acquisition of Arm, though regulatory hurdles could stop that from happening.
Elsewhere on the list, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and founder of several other companies, is also one of Time's top innovators. Tim Cook, meanwhile, falls into the Titan category.
AMD boss Lisa Su is one noticeably absent name, despite helping turn the company's fortunes around in recent years with the launch of the Zen architecture. She topped the highest-paid CEO list in 2019.