Nvidia's Jensen Huang confirms he was once asked to become chief executive of TSMC: 'I declined it... it's an unbelievable offer, but I simply couldn't take it'

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding the company's new GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards and a Thor Blackwell robotics processor during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a raft of new chips, software and services, aiming to stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Given Nvidia's status as the world's most valuable company, and the firm sitting at the forefront of the AI boom, I doubt CEO Jensen Huang has many regrets. Still, in a recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Huang confirmed that his future could have looked very different if he'd accepted a position as the chief executive of chipmaking juggernaut TSMC.

The company's founder, Morris Chang, wrote in his autobiography that Huang was offered the top position at the firm in 2013, but declined. When asked to confirm the story, Huang said: