Nvidia's CEO says getting up onstage terrifies him. He's not the only leader to feel that way.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/ AFP via Getty Images
- Nvidia's Jensen Huang admitted he gets stage fright despite his cool persona in tech.
- Huang's nerves are shared by other tech leaders like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
- Many have worked meticulously to lessen the pressure of public speaking.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is considered a "cool guy" in the tech industry, but he revealed in a recent interview that being onstage still makes him nervous.
Huang's "60 Minutes" interview aired on December 29. The Nvidia co-founder said walking out to a big crowd at last year's GTC AI Conference was a scary experience.
"I'm an engineer, not a performer. When I walked out there, and all of the people going crazy, it took the breath out of me," Huang said after giving his keynote. "I'm still scared."
He's at the helm of a company valued at over $3 trillion, and Huang's style (like his signature black leather jacket) and his meteoric success in the booming AI field have earned him a cool guy reputation in Silicon Valley. Still, Huang acknowledged his nerves around delivering a speech — something he will have to confront again when he presents a keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas on Monday.
He's not the only tech founder to struggle with public speaking. Steve Jobs, the Apple cofounder known for leading iconic launch events, might've appeared like a natural at public speaking but reportedly planned them out months in advance.
His effortlessness was envied by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who said Jobs had a talent for looking unrehearsed while on stage. Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli wrote in their 2015 book "Becoming Steve Jobs" that he actually spent entire days going over a presentation.
"I'll never achieve that level," Gates said on an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast.
Other leaders have been open about their nerves when addressing large crowds onstage. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned 40 in 2024, and he said he "didn't know anything about running a company, communicating publicly, etc" when he founded Facebook as a teen.
However, age and experience have made him more comfortable being himself in public, Zuck said on Threads.
Elon Musk was one of the most outspoken voices in 2024. As the owner of X, formerly Twitter, Musk uses his account to post almost daily. Before he owned the platform, he was still an active tweeter but admitted his lack of skills in public speaking in 2019.
I’m such a bad public speaker! Damn.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2019
Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, once said his fear of public speaking would've been detrimental to his career.
"I had been terrified of public speaking. I couldn't do it," Buffett said in the 2017 documentary "Becoming Warren Buffett."
Instead of letting his anxiety get in the way of his career, Buffett said he enrolled in a public speaking course after graduating from business school in 1951. Decades later, he still credits the course with changing his life.