Jensen Huang's charitable foundation balloons on Nvidia stock gains

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and wife Lori’s private foundation is worth an estimated $9.2 billion, per data firm FoundationMark.
• Despite its size, the foundation reported nearly zero overhead expenses in its most recent filing and has made few publicly known gifts.
• While Nvidia stock has been good to the Huangs’ foundation, experts caution that relying on one stock puts the endowment at risk.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Nvidia’s soaring stock price has supercharged CEO Jensen Huang’s fortunes – as well as his charitable giving.

Over the past five years, the charitable foundation launched by Huang and his wife, Lori, has grown from $828 million in assets to more than $9.1 billion, according to data firm FoundationMark, which tracks the investment performance of private foundations. At its current levels, the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation is now one of the 15 largest private foundations in the U.S., rivaling well established philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, according to FoundationMark.

“It’s interesting to see the sort of changing of the guard,” said John Seitz, CEO of FoundationMark. “Big philanthropy now is tech-driven, like many other things, far more than it used to be.”

The growth is all due to Nvidia shares that Huang donated to the foundation. The Huangs started the foundation in 2007 with 370,000 Nvidia shares worth $12.6 million at the time. Those shares have surged by more than 16,800% and are now worth $2.2 billion, adjusted for stock splits and receiving dividends, according to CNBC calculations. At the end of 2023, the foundation reported owning 68.5 million shares of Nvidia. 

The growth in assets will also mean a growth in giving. Private foundations are legally required to distribute at least 5% of their assets per year, using the average monthly value from the year prior. FoundationMark estimates the Huangs’ foundation had to distribute $123 million in 2024 and will have to give $369 million this year. While its assets and giving have made it a major player in philanthropy, the foundation’s infrastructure is still in its infancy.

As of 2023, the foundation had no paid staff. A chief operating officer was mentioned in a February press release for the Huangs’ $22.5 million donation to California College of the Arts. CNBC could not confirm his identity or relationship to the foundation.

Little is known about the foundation’s operations, and it doesn’t have a website. An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment. The foundation, through the Nvidia spokesperson, did not respond to questions from CNBC. 

While the Huangs have made some public gifts, such as a $50 million grant to their alma mater, Oregon State University, in 2022, the majority of the foundation’s disbursements go to donor-advised funds or DAFs. According to the 2023 filing, the Huangs gave $46 million to a Schwab DAF, making up 77% of the foundation’s disbursements that year.

DAFs have become highly popular with wealthy donors who can make a donation and get the immediate tax deduction, while waiting to decide how the actual donation will be used. They’re especially popular among younger tech entrepreneurs, who want to start their charitable giving but don’t have time to make grant decisions. Unlike foundations, DAFs are not required to distribute funds in a set time period or disclose the recipients.

Many family foundations such as the Huangs’ start with a heavily concentrated position in one stock, according to Doug Macauley, partner at investment advisory Cambridge Associates. However, he encourages them to diversify over time to hedge risk.

“I don’t think there’s a reason to necessarily hold a very concentrated position in one company in a foundation for a long time,” Macauley told CNBC. “You’re basically going to Vegas and you’re betting on black or red.”

Despite the foundation’s massive growth, the Huangs are still padding the endowment’s coffers. According to an SEC filing from early June, the couple’s trust donated 440,000 shares of Nvidia worth $60 million to the foundation and half as many to a DAF.