Jensen Huang's leather jackets become online punchline after Nvidia resignation

Resignation amid affair reports

Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of Nvidia on Thursday, 12 November, the chip company he founded three decades ago. Reports of an extramarital affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy led to a summons to testify before the US Senate, and two further affairs with Nvidia colleagues were later revealed. Rumours of a divorce are circulating while the company's share price continues to fall. Commentators have since turned his trademark wardrobe into a running joke.

A jacket that became a punchline

For nearly two decades a black leather jacket has been part of Huang's look, usually worn with a black T-shirt and dark jeans. In September he told CBS he owned 30 to 40 leather jackets, and he credited his wife with choosing them. The collection ranges from motorcycle-inspired styles with plenty of zips to collarless croc-embossed and clean-cut tailored versions. A signed Tom Ford jacket sold at a Sotheby's charity auction in July for $960,000, more than ten times its original price.

Huang has explained the uniform in practical terms, saying it spares him daily decisions about what to wear.

“It's nice to wear the same thing every day because no surprises.”

Peter Bevan, a writer and stylist, sees the jacket as a deliberate piece of image-making.

“The leather jacket is Huang's way of borrowing some cool.”

Memes and a fake photo

Memes have spread across social media, including one showing a leather jacket flying at half-mast and a string of divorced-dad jokes. A widely shared photo of Huang in a studded jacket was AI-generated, and Nvidia confirmed it had been doctored. The image was presented as a Saint Laurent jacket from Hedi Slimane's tenure at the house, and many people believed it was real. The New York Times said the studded look seemed to project defiance while the company's stock and reputation fell, and many shared the picture even after it was debunked. Vanity Fair's fashion writer José Criales-Unzueta is credited with putting the hoax to rest.

Why the look reads as a midlife crisis

Ellie Muir compared the collection to a midlife-crisis Porsche purchase, while a columnist called it textbook midlife crisis. Writer Emma Childs has disputed that a woman could have curated the image, even though the look began on the advice of Huang's wife, Lori. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Jack Dorsey also regularly wear leather jackets, and Mark Zuckerberg swapped jackets with Huang on stage at a 2024 conference in Colorado. At that keynote Huang wore a Tom Ford Tejus lizard-embossed jacket, which leather experts identified as retailing for around $9,000. Huang has said he chose his outfits mostly because they did not make him itch, a claim he made during an appearance at Stanford. Nvidia's share price has continued to fall, and the Senate summons remains outstanding.