Jensen Huang's Leather Jacket Auctioned for 1.4 Billion Won... 100 Times Retail Price

Sold for Over 15 Times the Original Expected Auction Price

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, saw his trademark black leather jacket sold at auction for over 1.4 billion won.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photo by The Asia Business Daily

On July 17 (local time), U.S. business media outlet CNBC reported that a Tom Ford leather jacket, personally worn and signed by CEO Huang, was sold for $960,000 (approximately 1.43 billion won) at a Sotheby's auction held that day.

The initial expected auction price ranged from $40,000 to $60,000 (roughly 60 million to 89 million won), but after bidding from a total of 45 collectors and 65 rounds of competition, the price skyrocketed. Compared to the retail price of the same jacket, which is $10,000 (about 15 million won), the auction amount soared to nearly 100 times higher. Sotheby's stated, "The response to (Jensen Huang's jacket) was far beyond our highest expectations." Regarding the result, CNBC commented, "This demonstrates that collectors are eager to bid on artifacts and memorabilia related to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom."

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA's handwritten signature on a leather jacket listed for auction. Screenshot from Sotheby's website

Sotheby's announced that all proceeds from this auction would be donated to the Edge Institute, a nonprofit organization supporting innovative technology and research, to be used for fellowships and research grants.

Both the tech industry and the public regard CEO Huang's leather jacket—which he wore at nearly every official appearance—as an iconic garment, similar to the black turtleneck sweater that Apple founder Steve Jobs wore throughout his life. The jacket is seen as embodying the image of a CEO who represents the AI era.

In fact, he has been seen wearing the leather jacket not only at product launch events or developer conferences, but also in everyday settings when meeting the public. When he visited Korea both on June 5 of this year and last year, CEO Huang was also seen wearing his leather jacket.

Additionally, CEO Huang has made numerous jokes about his "leather jacket look" over the years. On a podcast in 2023, he remarked, "I just wear what my wife and daughter pick out for me," and in 2016, he introduced himself on the online community Reddit as "the man in the leather jacket."

Meanwhile, the jacket donated by CEO Huang for the auction is the same one he wore at the Hon Hai Tech Day (HHTD) event held in Taipei, Taiwan on October 18, 2023. PSA, a sports memorabilia authentication firm, confirmed via photo analysis that this was indeed the jacket Huang wore at that event. His signature was also authenticated as genuine by JSA, a professional verification company. The jacket is reportedly in "like-new" condition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.