He Purchased Nvidia Stock in 1993, and It Has Since Become the Foundation of His $8.8 Billion Net Worth

Imagine if you had invested in Nvidia 30 years ago, prior to its IPO, and held onto your shares.

Venture capitalist Mark Stevens is now one of Nvidia's top individual shareholders, second only to CEO Jensen Huang. As a new partner at Sequoia Capital in 1993, Stevens invested in the AI chipmaker. He has been a member of Nvidia's board for most of its history, serving from 1993 to 2006 and then again from 2008 to the present. Nvidia went public in 1999.

“There are at least three instances I can recall where we nearly lost the company,” Stevens told Bloomberg. “Jensen often said, ‘We’re 30 days away from going out of business,’ which seems almost humorous today, but in the ‘90s, it was our reality.”

No one foresaw Nvidia’s transformation from an $8 million or $9 million Series A investment to a current market cap of $3 trillion, Stevens mentioned.

As reported by Bloomberg on Friday, Stevens’ ownership of over four million Nvidia shares is now valued at approximately $4.7 billion, making up more than half of his $8.8 billion net worth. The remainder of his wealth is attributed to his 6% ownership stake in the Golden State Warriors and other investments made throughout his venture capital career.

Despite the AI boom catapulting Nvidia stock to unprecedented levels, Stevens admits that holding onto the stock in the early days was challenging. The chip market was highly competitive, and retaining top Silicon Valley talent was costly.

Nvidia now dominates the AI chip market, with major tech companies like Microsoft and Google believed to be among its largest clients. However, those same clients could potentially become Nvidia’s competitors in the future, joining other chipmakers such as Intel and AMD.