Jensen Huang's pre-worn Tom Ford jacket fetched $960,000 at Sotheby's, 65 bids from 45 collectors. Proceeds go to the Edge Institute.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's signature black Tom Ford leather jacket sold at Sotheby's for $960,000 on Friday, far above the pre-sale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. The jacket, which Huang wore at a 2023 event at Foxconn in Taipei, drew 65 bids from 45 different collectors, Sotheby's said.
The retail price for one of the garments is just under $10,000. The auction result signals that collectors are seeking artifacts tied to the artificial intelligence boom, Sotheby's head of modern collectibles Brahm Wachter said in a statement. "The response to this sale surpassed even our highest expectations," Wachter said.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the Edge Institute, a nonprofit focused on innovation, through fellowships, grants, and residencies. Huang has worn leather jackets as his signature look for nearly 20 years, appearing in them at product launches, company events, and trade shows. He told a podcast in 2023 that his wife and daughter dress him, and told a Reddit discussion in 2016 that he is "the guy in the leather jacket."
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg traded garments with Huang in a pro sports-style "jersey swap" in 2024. Later that year, at a computer graphics conference, Huang gave Zuckerberg one of the jackets he had been wearing that day. "This is worth more because it's used," Zuckerberg said.
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