Nvidia: The GPU Company (1993-2006)

He wears signature leather jackets. He can bench press more than you. He makes cars that drive themselves. He’s cheated death - both corporate and personal - too many times to count, and he runs the 8th most valuable company in the world. Nope, he’s not Elon Musk, he’s Jensen Huang - the most badass CEO in semiconductor history. Today we tell the first chapter of his and Nvidia’s incredible story. You’ll want to buckle up for this one!
This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on KZbin.
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Links:
Shoot to Kill: www.forbes.com/global/2008/01...
Episode sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1w...
Carve Outs:
Starting Strength: startingstrength.com
Elden Ring: en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ri...
‍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.

[@musaran2]

Attempt at timestamps and TLDW: 0:51 intro 1:30 presentation from 1 among 90 competitors to 8th valuation in the world. Jensen Huang (CEO) is high personality. 4:22 sponsor 1 7:08 podcast community/media 8:07 Jensen's origins Self-taught English ; wrestling ; electrical engineering ; joins AMD. 16:56 ASICS at LSI Logic 20:32 3D adventure post-DOOM 26:26 reference, funding, foundation Botched the pitch, still got $2M round from Sutter Hill & Wilf Corrigan (LSI Logic CEO, Fairchild ex-CEO). Next Version → .nv → invidia (envy in latin) → NVidia → green (of envy). 31:54 competition, evangelization 35:05 SEGA arcade & Saturn, design decisions Quadrilaterals 36:48 Microsoft D3D & Sega Dreamcast Drastic design change: Triangles, cheap memory… 43:19 commodity 9 month left, layoff 70%, sub-par foundries, emulation prototyping. 49:30 Riva 128 Powerful but bugged, consumer-chosen: (53:29) Far Cry sold 1M in 4 months. 55:07 [1997] console/PC bifurcation. ×2power every 6 months. 57:08 parallel but static 1:00:56 Huge, TSMC direct call 1:03:48 Geometry Force → GeForce. 1st "GPU" name, to snub (1:05:21) Intel integrating components. 1:08:40 Xbox / GeForce 3 Introducing programmable shaders and lighting. 1:12:41 Intel competition, future 1:17:24 sponsor 2 1:22:11 going supernova $ 158M → 375M → 735M → 1.4B revenue 1:24:13 plateau, [2005] AMD-ATI competition AMD tried to buy Nvidia, but Jensen wanted to remain CEO. 1:25:13 GPU supercomputing 1:29:56 [2006] 66% gross margin ; powered only Xbox, PS3 & Switch (low margins) ; intel competition again. 1:34:51 scientific computing 1:38:24 simulation, dev tools 1:41:40 wrong backing?, consolidation 1:47:07 sponsor 3 1:49:39 Keyhole investment 1:53:20 alternate history? 1:56:17 closing, leading to next episode 1:58:50 card-out (Elden Ring) A bit messy, I take edit suggestions.

[@joshuaojo-aromokudu4176]

I love how long these are 😂 you guys said 2 hours. For part 1 😳 shout out from Cape Town South Africa btw!

[@RionellKoay]

I don't get it how a good channel like yours didn't pop out in my suggested list earlier enough Looking back on all your videos, damn so astonishing on all videos on yours Appreciate!

[@ozafter1]

You two are kings. Bravo!! Please just keep adding great companies to your library!

[@nathanrice6589]

Found you guys on spotify, this is my first episode. Guys i was so impressed after 60 minutes in, I then care enough to read the full show notes, and you guys give link to the KZbin channel.. frikn SMART move gentlemen!!! Love yalls chemistry

[@davidlee9772]

Found out about this NVIDIA podcast series from the WSJ article this weekend. I'm an hour in so far and loving it. Really enjoy the thorough deep diving and all the technical details that are generally skimmed over by so many of the other tech business podcasts/channels out there. This was clearly super well researched and I assure you that the attention to detail is very much appreciated. Expect to be listening to a lot more of you stuff based on the quality of this :)

[@herrpauk]

I don't know why I was recommended this video. By today's standards barely any views and subscribers, BUT.. the 2 of you have something going for you and one or both of you, what I strongly believe, will make a lot more of this than just random YT recommendations.

[@KevinFlory993]

You guys do a great job of capturing and explaining this history.

[@xaviescuder4660]

Brilliant work here. Thanks!

[@alexvech]

my favorite pod holy molyyyy, also i listened to the first podcasts you made (instagram, snapchat....) and you IMPROVED SO MUCH

[@AcquiredFM]

We'll take a most-improved award any time!

[@Nedumgottil]

Great episode guys

[@tomcat7928]

i love KZbin suggestions because it let me know your excellent show

[@qwerty-dv8zj]

Really really awesome stuff

[@djmips]

This is actually a pretty decent discussion which gets a lot of things right that are missed by almost everyone else. However, I am a little disappointed you never even touched on 3dfx at all, particularly when discussing the early to mid nineties. Memory was always an issue even with falling memory prices and 3dfx owned early Nvidia chips with their superior memory architecture. I am so glad you did touch on the single biggest secret weapon of Nvidia, their ability to get chips out on first try.

[@KevinFlory993]

Not to mention NVIDIA consumed the IP and key people from 3dfx and you could say acquired them without acquiring them.

[@justinpfortier]

Thinking about process power… does anyone know the fastest example of a company being hollowed out (taking their great staff) by a competitor due to being wrong strategically?

[@Trader_KennyG]

great ep

[@chesterchenus4806]

Love the story

[@_stokyo_]

Interviewer: what year is this? Dude: 1997 Interviewer: [i was in my dads balls still]

[@BrandonPolanco]

Ben, check out Barbell Medicine. A few [incredibly strong] doctors who used to work closely with Mark R. from SS create a lot of great content regarding strength training and health.

[@Benemortasia666]

You guys know stuff. Chapau

[@drdremd]

All hail the algorithm.

[@_stokyo_]

I love how much of a blagger Jensen is