Jensen Huang’s Jackets Were Cool. Now They’re a Punchline.

It wasn’t too long ago — a week maybe? — that Jensen Huang’s plethora of leather jackets were considered cool. But after his resignation as Nvidia CEO in the wake of an affair scandal, now his signature look is the butt of jokes.

Ok, so maybe not everyone considered him cool. He is, after all, a billionaire AI founder in his 60s, which isn’t exactly a Keith Richards type of cool. But it was a look — a sort of zesty, zippy fun cool-dad look. Someone even paid nearly a million dollars for one of his used Tom Ford jackets in a charity auction recently.

The leather jacket look was a good mix of stylish and practical. It wasn’t the severe utilitarian uniform of Steve Jobs’ turtleneck, although it meant he didn’t have to think hard about what to wear (he’s said in interviews that his wife and daughter bought him the jackets and that he doesn’t like to shop for himself).

It’s more edgy and fashionable than the standard tech bro Arcteryx vest, but it’s not as thirsty as Mark Zuckerberg with his gold chain and mullet or as gaudy as Jeff Bezos’ mob chic.

But circumstances changed.

Huang reportedly had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a business client alleged to be Chinese spy — which China denies — as well as two Nvidia employees. (He resigned the day after news of the first employee affair broke on Wednesday, but before the second on Thursday afternoon.)

Now, the leather jacket went from a cool quirky affectation to a desperate, horny, divorced-guy-energy look.

The Cut wrote that “Jensen Huang’s leather jacket confessed before he did”:

A $9,000 leather moto is not the outerwear of a man faithfully going home to his wife and kids after a long day of architecting the AI revolution. That’s a man in a midlife crisis with an active Raya profile and a Harley in the garage. If someone had consulted me years ago, I’d have said Huang is clearly someone who drinks wine with his mistress in the middle of the day. (The Times uncovered a 2023 photo of Jensen appearing to do exactly that at a luncheon in Shanghai with Alice.)

The New York Times wrote that “Jensen Huang betrayed the leather jacket community”:

We ask ourselves: Was Mr. Huang an easy mark because of his love of high-fashion, motorcycle-adjacent jackets that say both “I don’t care what people think!” and “Do you like how I look?” Did our — I mean, his — armor make him a target? Is an expensive leather jacket on a middle-aged man the new symbol of a honeypot victim?

Lol indeed.

And on social media, the jokes about the jacket being a glaring sign of an older guy ready to do some infidelity have been flowing.

Is there a lesson to be learned? I suppose it’s that having a signature style is great until your career crashes around you and that’s all everyone is joking about online.

At least the $960,000 someone paid for the used Jensen jacket went to charity.