October 16, 2023 • 1hr 29min

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Acquired

In this episode, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal of the Acquired podcast sit down with Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia. Nvidia is currently the 6th most valuable company in the world, worth over $1 trillion, and is powering the current AI explosion through its GPU technology and CUDA platform.

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Key Takeaways

Nvidia's success has often come from "betting the company" on new technologies and markets, but only after thoroughly simulating and testing the approach first to minimize risk.
Nvidia's platform strategy and architectural compatibility across GPU generations has been a key competitive advantage, dating back to the company's origins.
The transition from a consumer graphics company to a data center and AI powerhouse was a gradual process of anticipating where computing would move, not a sudden shift.
Nvidia's unique organizational structure, with a "mission is the boss" mentality, empowers teams to collaborate across the company in a neural network-like fashion.
Jensen Huang believes AI will ultimately create more jobs than it displaces, as increased productivity leads to business expansion and new opportunities.
The emotional and psychological toll of entrepreneurship is immense, but Nvidia has been sustained by a core group of long-term employees and investors who never gave up on the company.

Introduction

In this episode, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal of the Acquired podcast sit down with Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia. Nvidia is currently the 6th most valuable company in the world, worth over $1 trillion, and is powering the current AI explosion through its GPU technology and CUDA platform.

The hosts and Jensen discuss Nvidia's history, from the company's early days betting everything on the Riva 128 graphics chip, to its transition into the data center and AI markets. Jensen shares insights into Nvidia's unique organizational structure, its platform strategy, and how the company has navigated multiple "near-death experiences" to become the dominant force it is today.

Topics Discussed

Betting the Company on the Riva 128 (3:20)

In 1997, Nvidia was running out of money and had to bet everything on the Riva 128 graphics chip, which only supported 8 of the 32 DirectX blend modes.
Rather than fight DirectX, Nvidia decided to fully embrace it and build the "world's first fully accelerated hardware accelerated pipeline for rendering 3D."
Nvidia used emulation to virtually prototype the chip before taping it out, knowing they only had one shot to get it right.
Jensen says the lesson is not to "bet the company" recklessly, but to thoroughly simulate and test new approaches in advance to minimize risk.

Nvidia's Platform Strategy (51:54)

From the beginning, Nvidia was designed as a developer-oriented company, with a focus on creating an architecture (UDA/CUDA) that developers could program to.
Ensuring architectural compatibility across all Nvidia GPUs, even 30 years later, has been a key competitive advantage as a platform company.
Nvidia's organizational structure is designed like a computing stack, with people managing different "modules" rather than a traditional top-down hierarchy.

Nvidia's Transition to the Data Center (36:52)

Nvidia's journey to the data center began 17 years ago, with the insight that separating computing from the viewing device would unlock much larger market opportunities.
This led to products like GeForce NOW and remote graphics, which paved the way for Nvidia's data center business and its focus on accelerating AI workloads.
Jensen says Nvidia was able to anticipate the rise of distributed computing for AI training, which required different networking capabilities than traditional hyperscale computing.

Nvidia's Relationship with AI Research (20:23)

Nvidia's early engagement with AI researchers like Yann LeCun, Geoff Hinton, and Andrew Ng was crucial in understanding the potential of deep learning.
The company's focus on democratizing supercomputing through CUDA allowed it to build strong relationships with the AI research community.
Jensen says Nvidia's confidence in the scalability of deep learning, even from early successes like GANs, led the company to invest heavily in supporting the AI research ecosystem.

Nvidia's Organizational Approach (29:02)

Nvidia's organizational structure is designed around a "mission is the boss" mentality, with teams collaborating across the company in a neural network-like fashion.
This allows information and decision-making to be distributed, rather than a traditional top-down hierarchy.
The downside is the high pressure on leaders, who must earn the right to their roles through their ability to reason through problems and help others succeed.

The Emotional Toll of Entrepreneurship (1:20:04)

Jensen acknowledges that if he knew how hard building Nvidia would be, he's not sure he would have done it, despite the company's immense success.
The vulnerability, embarrassment, and challenges of entrepreneurship are immense, and Jensen credits Nvidia's long-term employees and investors for providing unwavering support.
He believes the "superpower" of entrepreneurs is their ability to convince themselves that the challenges aren't as hard as they really are.

The Future of AI and Jobs (1:02:34)

Jensen believes AI will ultimately create more jobs than it displaces, as increased productivity leads to business expansion and the pursuit of new ideas and opportunities.
He sees AI as a "lever" that will allow humans to do more, rather than replacing human labor entirely.
The key is ensuring AI development is done safely and responsibly, with humans remaining "in the loop" for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion

This episode provides a deep dive into the history, strategy, and mindset of Nvidia and its co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang. It offers valuable insights for founders and business leaders, from Nvidia's willingness to "bet the company" on new technologies, to its unique organizational approach, to the immense emotional and psychological challenges of entrepreneurship.

Throughout the conversation, Jensen shares his perspective on Nvidia's journey, from its origins as a graphics company to its transformation into an AI powerhouse. He emphasizes the importance of anticipating market shifts, building strong platforms, and fostering a collaborative, mission-driven culture - all while acknowledging the personal toll that building a company of Nvidia's scale can take.

Ultimately, this episode serves as a comprehensive case study on Nvidia's rise to dominance, as well as a reflection on the realities of founding and leading a technology company at the highest levels. It is a must-listen for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the semiconductor and AI industries.