Nvidia Accounts for Half of Mark Stevens’ $8.8B Wealth

Money Bizwiz Team
4 Min Read

Imagine if you had invested in Nvidia 30 years ago, before it became a public sensation. Venture capitalist Mark Stevens did just that, and today he stands as one of Nvidia’s top individual shareholders, second only to CEO Jensen Huang. Stevens’ journey with the AI chipmaker began in 1993 when he became a partner at Sequoia Capital. His involvement with Nvidia has been pivotal, serving on the board from 1993 to 2006, and then again from 2008 to the present. Nvidia made its mark by going public in 1999.

“There’s at least three times I can think of where we almost lost the company,” Stevens revealed in an interview with Bloomberg. “Jensen has his famous saying of, ‘We’re 30 days away from going out of business,’ which is almost laughable today, but in the ’90s it was the reality.”

No one could have predicted the meteoric rise of Nvidia from a Series A valuation of $8-9 million to becoming a $3 trillion market cap giant today, according to Stevens.

Fast forward to today, Stevens’ over four million Nvidia shares are valued at around $4.7 billion, representing more than half of his $8.8 billion fortune. The rest of his wealth stems from his 6% ownership in the Golden State Warriors and various other successful venture capital endeavors.

While the AI boom has undoubtedly catapulted Nvidia to new heights, Stevens acknowledges the challenges faced in the early days. The chip market was fiercely competitive, and attracting top talent in Silicon Valley came at a premium.

Mark Stevens scrutinizing a 360-degree display. Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

In the present landscape, Nvidia stands as a leader in the AI chip market, boasting clients like Microsoft and Google. However, these same clients could also emerge as competitors in the future, alongside industry giants like Intel and AMD.

Emphasizing Nvidia’s strategy in the face of growing competition, Huang mentioned producing AI chips with the “lowest total cost of ownership.” Nvidia’s chips are the driving force behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with tens of thousands in circulation.

Huang, holding the largest individual stake with 3.8% ownership of over 934 million shares, made headlines for cashing in $169 million worth of shares in June. Other executives and directors at Nvidia have also capitalized on the company’s success, selling shares worth over $700 million since the beginning of the year.

Nvidia has experienced astounding stock growth of over 3,000% in the past five years, turning early investors into millionaires. Reports suggest that some long-term employees are enjoying a “semi-retirement” lifestyle thanks to stock grants.

It’s stories like Stevens’ journey with Nvidia that remind us of the power of long-term investments and belief in the potential of groundbreaking technology. Who knows, maybe the next Nvidia success story is just waiting to be discovered.

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