Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Wins IEEE Medal of Honor for Sparking the GPU Revolution

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor for GPU and AI leadership

Jensen Huang, cofounder and CEO of Nvidia, has been named the 2026 recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor, the institute announced on 6 January during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. IEEE president and CEO Mary Ellen Randall presented the news at CES, highlighting Huang's role in pioneering graphics processing units and applying them to scientific computing and artificial intelligence.

What the award recognizes

The IEEE cited Huang for his "leadership in the development of graphics processing units and their application to scientific computing and artificial intelligence." Founded in 1993, Nvidia introduced a programmable GPU six years later — a development that IEEE says helped spark extraordinary advances across multiple disciplines. The Medal of Honor is the institute's most prestigious award and carries a US $2 million prize, underscoring IEEE's mission to celebrate technology that benefits humanity.

Huang's reaction and IEEE's praise

At the CES event, Huang described the recognition as a collective achievement: “Receiving the IEEE Medal of Honor is an incredible honor. I thank IEEE for this incredible award that I receive on behalf of all the great employees at Nvidia.” Randall, introducing the award, called the Medal of Honor “the pinnacle of recognition and our most prestigious award,” and said Huang's leadership and technical vision had “unlocked a new era of innovation.”

Why the GPU mattered — and still does

GPUs changed the trajectory of computing by shifting the focus from purely sequential processors to massively parallel architectures better suited for media, simulation and, eventually, machine learning workloads. That parallelism accelerated training of large neural networks and enabled researchers and companies to tackle scientific problems — from molecular modeling to large-scale data analytics — in ways that were previously impractical. Under Huang's stewardship, Nvidia expanded the GPU's remit from graphics into high-performance computing and AI infrastructure, helping to catalyze the current wave of generative AI and related breakthroughs.

Recognition beyond engineering

Huang's influence extends beyond engineering circles. He was named among the “Architects of AI” in Time magazine's 2025 Person of the Year group, appeared on Time's 2021 cover, and has been honored by outlets such as Harvard Business Review and Fortune for his leadership and performance as a CEO. He is also an eminent member of IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu.

Next steps and ceremony

The 2026 IEEE Medal of Honor, along with other high-profile IEEE awards, will be formally presented at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in April in New York City. For ongoing updates about IEEE's awards and honorees, IEEE encourages followers to monitor the IEEE Awards page and its LinkedIn channel.

What this means for the industry

The Medal of Honor spotlights the strategic importance of hardware innovation in shaping software and services, particularly in fields like AI where computational throughput and specialized accelerators are core to progress. By recognizing Huang, IEEE is acknowledging the central role that commercially driven engineering — alongside academic research — plays in delivering technological advances with wide societal impact.

Bottom line: The IEEE Medal of Honor cements Jensen Huang's place among the most influential technologists of his generation, acknowledging a career that helped transform a component originally built for rendering graphics into a foundation for modern scientific and AI computing.