If the couple ever decided to end their marriage, California state law would take center stage.
Jensen and Lori live in California, which is a community property state. Under California law, pretty much everything a couple earns or acquires while married belongs equally to both spouses and gets split 50-50 in a divorce. Because they got married in 1985 – years before Nvidia even existed – almost all the shares accumulated over the course of their marriage would normally count as shared marital property.
Still, that doesn’t automatically mean Lori gets handed half of all 811 million shares. How the pie gets sliced depends heavily on when specific batches of stock were acquired, how those trusts were structured, and whether the two ever signed a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. Assets someone owned before the wedding, along with certain gifts or inheritances, play by different rules.
There is another legal wrinkle people often overlook: California is a strictly no-fault divorce state. Even when one spouse openly admits to cheating, the courts don’t punish them financially by handing the other spouse a bigger slice of the pie. Jensen’s confession of infidelity would not, on its own, entitle Lori to a single extra dollar in a settlement.
