Nvidia CEO's leather jacket sells for $960,000 at Sotheby's

A black leather jacket worn by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold for $960,000 at a Sotheby's auction on July 17, 2025—16 times its pre-sale estimate of $60,000. The Tom Ford jacket, authenticated via photomatching to a 2023 Foxconn event in Taipei, attracted 45 bidders across 65 bids Source: CNBC.

The Sale

The jacket was estimated at $40,000–$60,000 but fetched nearly a million dollars. "The response to this sale surpassed even our highest expectations," said Brahm Wachter of Sotheby's Source: CNBC. The buyer paid 96 times the retail price of under $10,000 Source: The Next Web. Proceeds go to the Edge Institute, a nonprofit supporting tech and innovation fellowships Source: Tom's Hardware.

Why It Matters

The auction highlights how the AI boom elevates tech leaders' memorabilia. Huang's leather jacket has become his signature look, akin to Steve Jobs' turtleneck Source: CNA. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who traded garments with Huang in 2024, joked on stage: "This is worth more because it's used" Source: CNBC. Gizmodo criticized the sale as excessive, noting the jacket's style and the "cringe" factor Source: Gizmodo.

• 65 bids from 45 collectors pushed the price far above estimate.
• PSA photomatching confirmed the jacket was worn at Foxconn in 2023.
• Sotheby's head of modern collectibles called it "an object so closely tied to one of the defining figures of the AI era" .