A black Tom Ford leather jacket worn for more than a decade by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been put up for auction at Sotheby’s New York. By the morning of July 10, the bid stood at $70,000, about 1.85 billion VND, for a jacket originally bought off the shelf for roughly 270 million VND.
The auction is organized by Long Journey Ventures, with all proceeds going to The Edge Institute, a nonprofit supporting scholarships and residency programs for the next generation of builders in technology and science.
The jacket has appeared at pivotal moments in tech history, including Nvidia’s H100 chip reveal, various GTC conferences where Huang introduced new generations of chips, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year cover in 2021, and a Beijing street moment when Huang calmly ate zhajiangmian amid an international media storm. Sotheby’s describes the item as more than a garment, calling it the “uniform of a CEO” and a “relic of a belief: that the future is built by those who dare to step into uncharted territory before others see the way.”
Sotheby’s frames the jacket as a symbol of how tech leaders influence corporate and cultural imagery. The item stands not as a rare fashion piece in itself, but as a reflection of decades of wearing a single item during defining tech moments, which has lent it meaning beyond its material value.
Market observers note that tech icons often generate lasting symbols through a single item worn repeatedly. The jacket’s history—paired with Huang’s leadership at Nvidia as AI chips reshape the industry—adds a narrative layer that may drive interest beyond its intrinsic price. The current bid of $70,000 may not be the ceiling, as the auction continues until July 17 and late-session bids often surge.
