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CEO of ‘most important company in AI’ goes unrecognised by Shanghai street vendor

The clip shows Nvidia's Jensen Huang visiting Jinde Market in Shanghai’s Lujiazui area just days before the Lunar New Year.

3 min readNew DelhiJan 29, 2026 06:02 PM IST

Huang was seen handing a Lunar New Year envelope with 600 yuan to the street vendor

A casually dressed Jensen Huang wandering through a busy Shanghai market was not something many expected to see, and that’s exactly why a short video of the Nvidia CEO has gone viral online.

The clip shows Huang visiting Jinde Market in Shanghai’s Lujiazui area on January 24, just days before the Lunar New Year. With no entourage in sight, the tech billionaire is seen strolling past stalls, buying fruit and snacks, and chatting with local vendors as curious onlookers quietly gather around him.

What truly caught people’s attention was a moment when Huang handed a Lunar New Year lai see, a traditional red envelope, to a street vendor surnamed Xu. The envelope reportedly contained 600 yuan (around $90), but the gesture initially went unnoticed.

“Who’s he?” the shop owner is heard asking in the video, seemingly unaware of the man’s identity despite phones being raised all around him. “I did not recognise him initially,” Xu later told Jimu News, a Chinese media outlet. “Many people gathered around and took pictures of him, then I realised he was Huang Renxun,” he added, referring to Huang by his Chinese name.

Watch the video:

Jensen Huang of $NVDA enjoying biking and eating strawberries in Shanghai
and you’re bearish on AI pic.twitter.com/XWQTFtc7I3

— The Tech Investor (@TheTechInvest) January 25, 2026

According to the South China Morning Post, Huang bought roasted chestnuts, candied hawthorns, and even splurged on oranges worth 2,200 yuan ($320) at a fruit stall. One shop owner recalled a particularly down-to-earth moment from the visit.

“I told him to sample some fruit. I asked him if he wanted me to wash them first. He said no and directly picked one up to eat,” the vendor said.

As the video spread across social media, users couldn’t help but react. “That strawberry place about to go viral,” one of them joked. Another wrote, “CEO of the most important company in AI casually chilling in China… Yeah, totally bearish on AI.” A third user commented, “He’s adorable and very likable.”

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Huang, a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and Nvidia’s co-founder, was reportedly in China as part of a routine visit ahead of the Lunar New Year. During the trip, he also met Nvidia employees and held discussions with officials, though it was his low-key market stroll that ended up stealing the spotlight.