Old Huang brought the story up again himself. On Lex Fridman's podcast a few days ago, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang recalled his trip to China back in May, describing the downtown Beijing scene as "absolutely buzzing," then added what I think is the funniest line: every restaurant he ate at treated him as its spokesperson. "They move so fast — it took them about half an hour, and I was already online, turned into a promotional signboard for every restaurant."
Half an hour — that number came from Huang himself. At noon on May 15, he showed up at the entrance of the Fangzhuanchang No. 69 zhajiangmian shop in Nanluoguxiang, standing on the street eating a 38-yuan signature black pork zhajiangmian, asking passersby in Chinese between bites, "Have you tried it?" The staff recognized him and comped his meal, and he packed a portion to go when he left. On the same street he also drank an 8-yuan Mixue Bingcheng peach four-seasons spring tea and was fed a mouthful of douzhi by a passerby, grimacing on the spot and asking, "What is this stuff?"
Less than six hours after he left, more than 40 Fangzhuanchang stores across Beijing simultaneously launched a "Jensen Huang check-in same-style" group-buy deal, the set meal bluntly named "Leather Jacket War God Same Style," containing black pork zhajiangmian, milk-skin yogurt, diced pork zhajiang gift box, and old Beijing tripe noodles. Related topics on Douyin racked up 177 million views, group-buy sales in the zhajiangmian category rose 77%, brand search volume jumped 268%, and that same-style set later sold over 100,000 orders.
This was already his second visit to the shop in under a year; the first was the Chongwenmen branch in July 2025. The half hour Huang mentioned was actually an understatement. Netizens later gave Nanluoguxiang a new nickname, "Jensen Huang Street," and called him "the richest street wanderer on Earth" and "AAA graphics card wholesale boss Huang."
A young man from Dandong born in 1999, Yang Yang, spent a couple hundred yuan on a leather jacket and glasses, whitened his hair with flour, and recreated Huang's famous scenes of drinking Mixue and eating zhajiangmian; his account "Huang Yinxun" gained 52,000 followers in half a month, with one video nearing ten million views.
The most absurd part of this traffic phenomenon is that, by Huang's own account, NVIDIA's share of China's high-end AI chip market has dropped from 95% to 0, and in the August earnings report, H200 revenue from China accounted for less than 1% of total data center revenue. Essentially not a single chip sold, while the noodle shop sold 100,000 same-style set meals.
I don't think this is purely a publicity stunt — that relaxed vibe of his can't be faked. A 63-year-old willing to stand on the street slurping noodles from a bowl and seriously asking passersby whether they've tried it would count as dedication even in the entertainment industry. But it must be said clearly: this bowl of noodles is not charity.
On October 22, during GTC Berlin, he told CNBC in an interview that "no country is stronger than China in manufacturing," and when asked about cooperation with ChangXin Memory, his answer was "we remain open." The next day in Astana he pulled a traditional Kazakh robe over his leather jacket and received the Order of Friendship, First Class.
What he's doing globally right now is the same thing: turning himself into a symbol that can land, take photos, and be printed on signboards, then hoping that symbol will one day push a door open a crack. The noodle shop owner framed his signature and hung it on the wall; the money made in that half year may have exceeded what NVIDIA earned in China over the same period. That's not a pleasant thing to say, but it is the truth.
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