Jensen Huang on Lex Fridman: Why CUDA almost sank NVIDIA

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 23, 2026

Duration

2h 25m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Jensen Huang is the co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, the world's most valuable company and the engine powering the AI computing revolution. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep494-sb See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. *Transcript:* https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript *CONTACT LEX:* *Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey *AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama *Hiring* - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring *Other* - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact *EPISODE LINKS:* NVIDIA: https://nvidia.com NVIDIA on X: https://x.com/nvidia NVIDIA AI on X: https://x.com/NVIDIAAI NVIDIA on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@NVIDIA NVIDIA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nvidia/ NVIDIA on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nvidia/ NVIDIA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NVIDIA/ NVIDIA on GitHub: https://github.com/NVIDIA Nemotron: https://developer.nvidia.com/nemotron *SPONSORS:* To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: *Perplexity:* AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep494-sb *Shopify:* Sell stuff online. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep494-sb *LMNT:* Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep494-sb *Fin:* AI agent for customer service. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep494-sb *Quo:* Phone system (calls, texts, contacts) for businesses. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/quo-ep494-sb *OUTLINE:* 0:00 - Introduction 0:33 - Extreme co-design and rack-scale engineering 3:18 - How Jensen runs NVIDIA 22:40 - AI scaling laws 37:40 - Biggest blockers to AI scaling laws 39:23 - Supply chain 41:18 - Memory 47:24 - Power 52:43 - Elon and Colossus 56:11 - Jensen's approach to engineering and leadership 1:01:37 - China 1:09:50 - TSMC and Taiwan 1:15:04 - NVIDIA's moat 1:20:41 - AI data centers in space 1:24:30 - Will NVIDIA be worth $10 trillion? 1:34:39 - Leadership under pressure 1:48:25 - Video games 1:55:16 - AGI timeline 1:57:29 - Future of programming 2:11:01 - Consciousness 2:17:22 - Mortality *PODCAST LINKS:*

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🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lex Fridman

  host

  Podcast host and AI researcher known for long-form interviews on science and technology.

• Jensen Huang

  guest

  Co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, leading the company’s GPU and AI computing platform strategy.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Jensen Huang, Jensen Huang on Lex Fridman: Why CUDA almost sank NVIDIA explores jensen Huang on co-design, scaling laws, power, and leadership philosophy Huang argues that AI performance now depends on distributing work across massive systems, making extreme co-design across chips, networking, power, cooling, software, and algorithms a necessity rather than an optimization.

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