NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

We finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts and seven+ hours of covering the company, we thought we knew everything but — unsurprisingly — Jensen knows more. A couple teasers: we learned that the company’s initial motivation to enter the datacenter business came from perhaps not where you’d think, and the roots of Nvidia’s platform strategy stretch back beyond CUDA all the way to the origin of the company. We also got a peek into Jensen’s mindset and calculus behind “betting the company” multiple times, and his surprising feelings about whether he’d go on the founder journey again if he could rewind time. We can’t think of any better way to tie a bow on our Nvidia series (for now). Tune in! Sponsors: Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get: Your product growth powered by Statsig https://bit.ly/statsigacquired Scalable, clean and low-cost cloud AI compute from Crusoe, and listen to our recent ACQ2 interview with CEO Chase Lochmiller https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe https://bit.ly/CrusoeACQ2 Free access to Jensen’s favorite business books on Blinkist, plus our favorites on Ben & David’s Bookshelf https://bit.ly/BlinkistJensen https://bit.ly/BlinkistBookshelf More Acquired!: Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes https://www.acquired.fm/email Join the Slack http://acquired.fm/slack Subscribe to ACQ2 https://pod.link/acquiredlp Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more https://acquired.fm/lp ACQ Merch Store! https://www.acquired.fm/store Timestamps: 00:00:00 Teaser 00:00:41 Intro 00:02:54 Riva 128 00:17:27 Post-AlexNet 00:20:29 OpenAI 00:22:21 Language Models 00:24:56 Statsig 00:27:13 Direct Reports 00:32:07 Product Shipping Cycle 00:34:16 Journey to the Data Center 00:39:31 Mellanox Acquisition 00:43:41 Crusoe 00:45:45 Advice For Company Building 00:55:54 Luck & Skill 00:59:54 Job Displacement 01:06:56 Blinkist 01:08:57 Favorite Sci-Fi 01:09:33 Daily Driver 01:10:28 Favorite Business Book 01:10:55 Don Valentine 01:11:45 40 Year-Old Jensen 01:12:42 What are You Afraid of? 01:13:29 Final Job 01:19:44 Starting a Company in 2023 01:23:13 Market Drawdowns 01:27:43 Outro Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions. © Copyright ACQ, LLC

Ben GilberthostDavid RosenthalhostJensen Huangguest

Oct 16, 20231h 30mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: October 16, 2023
Duration: 1h 30m
Channel: Acquired
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

We finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts and seven+ hours of covering the company, we thought we knew everything but — unsurprisingly — Jensen knows more. A couple teasers: we learned that the company’s initial motivation to enter the datacenter business came from perhaps not where you’d think, and the roots of Nvidia’s platform strategy stretch back beyond CUDA all the way to the origin of the company. We also got a peek into Jensen’s mindset and calculus behind “betting the company” multiple times, and his surprising feelings about whether he’d go on the founder journey again if he could rewind time. We can’t think of any better way to tie a bow on our Nvidia series (for now). Tune in! Sponsors: Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get: Your product growth powered by Statsig https://bit.ly/statsigacquired Scalable, clean and low-cost cloud AI compute from Crusoe, and listen to our recent ACQ2 interview with CEO Chase Lochmiller https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe https://bit.ly/CrusoeACQ2 Free access to Jensen’s favorite business books on Blinkist, plus our favorites on Ben & David’s Bookshelf https://bit.ly/BlinkistJensen https://bit.ly/BlinkistBookshelf More Acquired!: Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes https://www.acquired.fm/email Join the Slack http://acquired.fm/slack Subscribe to ACQ2 https://pod.link/acquiredlp Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more https://acquired.fm/lp ACQ Merch Store! https://www.acquired.fm/store Timestamps: 00:00:00 Teaser 00:00:41 Intro 00:02:54 Riva 128 00:17:27 Post-AlexNet 00:20:29 OpenAI 00:22:21 Language Models 00:24:56 Statsig 00:27:13 Direct Reports 00:32:07 Product Shipping Cycle 00:34:16 Journey to the Data Center 00:39:31 Mellanox Acquisition 00:43:41 Crusoe 00:45:45 Advice For Company Building 00:55:54 Luck & Skill 00:59:54 Job Displacement 01:06:56 Blinkist 01:08:57 Favorite Sci-Fi 01:09:33 Daily Driver 01:10:28 Favorite Business Book 01:10:55 Don Valentine 01:11:45 40 Year-Old Jensen 01:12:42 What are You Afraid of? 01:13:29 Final Job 01:19:44 Starting a Company in 2023 01:23:13 Market Drawdowns 01:27:43 Outro Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions. © Copyright ACQ, LLC

SPEAKERS

Ben Gilbert
host
David Rosenthal
host
Jensen Huang
guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Acquired, featuring Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang explores jensen Huang on NVIDIA’s bets, platforms, and AI’s future economy Jensen Huang explains how NVIDIA survived early existential risk with the Riva 128 by “pulling risk forward” through emulation, full-stack software readiness, and a one-shot production mindset.

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