Imec names Jensen Huang 2026 lifetime innovation award winner

Imec has named NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang as the recipient of its 2026 imec Lifetime of Innovation Award, recognizing his contributions to high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. The award highlights Huang’s role in developing GPU technology that has become central to modern computing and AI workloads.

The award ceremony will take place on May 19 during the Imec Technology Forum World in Antwerp, Belgium. For engineers and executives following the semiconductor and AI ecosystem, the recognition underscores how GPU innovation continues to shape the direction of computing platforms and system architectures across industries.

GPU innovation drives modern computing

Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has served as its president and CEO since its inception. Under his leadership, the company introduced the programmable GPU in 1999, a milestone that initially transformed computer graphics but soon became fundamental to parallel computing.

Over the past decade, GPUs have also become a cornerstone of AI acceleration. Deep learning workloads rely heavily on massively parallel processing, and GPUs have enabled large-scale neural network training and inference used in data centers, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other emerging applications.

According to Luc Van den hove, the technology shift driven by GPUs has fundamentally altered the computing landscape.

“The significance of the (programmable) GPU’s invention cannot be overstated. What started as highly specialized processors for the video gaming market, have become foundational to accelerated computing and to AI as a new computing paradigm – transforming every industry. Jensen Huang is therefore not only the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, but one of the architects of modern computing.”

The imec Lifetime of Innovation Award recognizes individuals whose work has significantly influenced technological progress. Previous recipients include the late Gordon Moore, who received the award in 2016 for his contributions to semiconductor scaling and the formulation of Moore’s Law.

Recognizing leadership in the AI era

Imec says the award also reflects Huang’s broader influence on the AI ecosystem, where system-level innovation is increasingly critical. The research organization highlights the need for tighter integration across the semiconductor stack—from chip design and packaging to system architectures—to meet the demands of next-generation AI workloads.

“With this award, we celebrate innovation as a commitment to curiosity, to risk-taking, and to building technologies that fundamentally shape society,” said Van den hove. “By presenting the 2026 Lifetime of Innovation Award to Jensen Huang, we profoundly honor someone who embodies all of that. His work and visionary leadership has re-shaped computing, ushered in the age of AI, empowered entire industries, and inspired generations of engineers and researchers.”

Huang emphasized the collective nature of technological progress.

“It has been a privilege to do my life’s work alongside the extraordinary colleagues at NVIDIA — together reinventing computing and helping to ignite the AI industrial revolution. Our achievements stand firmly on the foundations laid by pioneering institutions like imec and the fundamental advances of the semiconductor industry that have made modern computing possible. This recognition is not only a tribute to our work at NVIDIA, but to the global community of scientists, engineers, and innovators whose breakthroughs continue to expand the horizons of what computing can become.”

The award will be presented during ITF World 2026, imec’s flagship conference that brings together semiconductor manufacturers, system companies, and research institutions to discuss the future of deep-tech innovation.