NVIDIA's CEO left off TIME's 'Most Influential People in AI'
What's the story
NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang, a key player in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, has been left off TIME magazine's 2026 list of the top 100 most influential people in AI. The omission is surprising as Huang was featured in each of the first three editions of this list since its inception in 2023. The latest edition features tech moguls like SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among others.
Industry impact
Surprising exclusion of Huang from the list
The absence of Huang from the list is all the more surprising considering NVIDIA's key position in the AI sector.
The company's GPUs are extensively used to train and run complex AI systems, making it a major player in this rapidly growing industry.
Despite his exclusion from TIME's latest edition, Huang had made it to their previous three AI 100 lists from 2023-2025.
Selection process
Notable entries in TIME's most influential people in AI list
TIME magazine describes its annual list as a way to recognize those who "best represent the year's key storylines" and have the most impact on developments in AI.
The 2026 edition also features tech giants from IBM, Google DeepMind, ByteDance, Broadcom, Databricks, Amazon, and Oracle to show how far AI influence now reaches.
It also includes entertainment and political figures like Ben Affleck, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paris Hilton, and US Senator Bernie Sanders.