Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo: Maurizio Pesce / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Jensen Huang started Nvidia in 1993 at a Denny’s in San Jose, California, when he was 30. In October 2025 it became the first company to reach a market value above $5 trillion. Forbes now estimates Huang’s own fortune at more than $200 billion, seventh in the world.
The story of how a graphics chip maker became the engine of the artificial intelligence boom is well known. Less discussed is how that boom lands in places like Illinois.
Data centers on the edges of the map
AI systems run on rows of servers packed with Nvidia processors, and those servers need buildings, power and water. The Chicago region, with its fiber networks, power grid and available land, has become one of the country’s data center markets, with large projects in the suburbs and exurbs. Each one brings construction jobs, property tax revenue and long debates about electricity demand.
For Chicago ratepayers, the question of who pays to expand the grid for data centers has become a live issue at the state level.
Universities and startups
Research universities in Illinois buy Nvidia hardware for their computing clusters, and startups in Chicago’s tech community build products on top of the company’s chips and software. The 1871 incubator in the Merchandise Mart and other startup programs have seen a rush of AI companies in the past few years.
Closer to Uptown
Most neighborhood businesses will never buy a graphics processor. But they already use services built on them: scheduling tools, translation apps, point-of-sale systems that predict inventory, and chatbots that answer customer questions. Restaurants on Argyle use translation tools with suppliers and customers. Landlords use software to screen tenants and set rents.
The person at the top
Huang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, spent part of his childhood in Thailand before being sent to the United States at age nine. He studied in Oregon and at Stanford and has run Nvidia since its founding. Time named him one of the Architects of AI for its 2025 Person of the Year.
His trademark black leather jacket has become a fixture at tech conferences. The company’s results have become a fixture in retirement accounts. For many Chicago savers with index funds, Nvidia is now one of their largest holdings, whether they know it or not.
Marcus Hadley covers business, transit and real estate in Uptown.
