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!
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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.

[@positivevibes532]

96% of Nvidia’s employees approve of Jensen as CEO. That is by far the highest approval rating of any CEO of any company on the market.

[@resa574]

It's tied to the valuation increase They had a nice tailwind with ai

[@mastershredder2002]

Nope. Adam Neumann beat him.

[@positivevibes532]

@@mastershredder2002 Incorrect. Listen to me very carefully and try to understand. Open an internet browser and head over to Google. From that point type “highest CEO approval rating” in the search bar and click the news tab for the most recent results. From there you will see over a dozen articles backing up exactly what I just said. Best of luck bub.

[@donut4sk]

Cant like anymore as 96 likes match 96% Jensen's approval rating

[@akhil090579]

I wonder what the 4% who don't approve of him are thinking, probably not enough stock options...

[@barbarosozturk]

The fact that conversations like this are released to the public for free is fascinating. Thank you for hosting it. Incredible value!

[@kwesisackey]

Emphatically agree

[@dmalka336]

We are SO rich in information and knowledge nowadays. It's such an incredible blessing.

[@harrypotcha0283]

Note how little amount of viewership it attracts! I guess the majority prefers watching Elon Musk repeating himself and making the same promises

[@theworld5937]

Guy never has scandals or cheated his cofounders or stiffed his early employees like do many other tech founders. That is to be admired.

[@WhitneyDB]

I've been on a Jensen deep dive of all the recent talks and pods... Already a fan but his poise, demeanor, sincerity and engagement with you too just sealed my respect for him.. Well done, what a fantastic episode.. Thank you!

[@asdfjoe12]

I really like how Jenson talks about things in a confident and calm tone.

[@Daynja1]

Great video. Nice to hear from the guy that's responsible for my early retirement.

[@francisfoo8381]

Really inspiring. "Don't let Outlook control your life -- there is plenty of time (to do what you want to do)". This is but one of the my favorite wisdom nuggets from this interview. Also, I am so energized by how he felt that huge sense of responsibility towards his employees, which stands in stark contrast to the grim layoffs in corporate America. Thank you guys for this stellar interview!

[@UHDking]

I am a big fan of Jensen Huang. Such a brilliant human being. Thanks to Jensen for sharing tips and secrets for success. He is as smart as Elon Musk. Said to see his grey hair - I thought he is younger than he is. What an amazing guy! Thanks Jensen and we want more interview and intellectual thoughts that generate so much energy to use for our discoveries.

[@sichard.rimmons]

I love how prepared you guys are and meet your guests where they are. You don’t water things down and it’s clear that your guests appreciate it

[@Thefungshow]

"1. What’s the true problem you’re trying to solve?
 2. What is the unmet need that you believe will emerge?
 3. What is it that you’re going to do that is sufficiently hard that when everybody else finds out is a good idea they’re not going to swarm it and make you obsolete?" love it!

[@beachgal2023]

How lucky you were to get to interview Jensen. He's a rockstar.

[@Carswithxavier]

Thank you guys for going out of your way to make this interview happen and to Mr. Jensen thank you for being successful and being willing to share your story and insights with us all!!!

[@lypsoty1123]

Such an incredible experience to have a genuine favorite founder be featured on a genuine favorite podcast. Congrats to everyone involved! Great episode.

[@Qiaozhi]

5 minutes in and I am loving this episode already! I am here to thank you both because commenting isn't available on the google podcast.

[@markm4642]

Fabulous episode team. Working at NVIDIA is an amazing experience and you both captured how it got architected and where things will go. Keep doing your life's work

[@shuansmiles]

thank you for the interview, really appreciate how sincere Jensen is.

[@Th3_Native]

This was a great follow-up from episode 1. As a business owner myself, this has been a great listen and motivation! Thank you for your time and dedication in making this.

[@jesseself1562]

Wow! What an awesome interview to land. You guys are great. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

[@rbellis13]

Sharing this! So well done - Thank you. I confess I have a short attention span - but I wanted this interview to continue. Your preparation, depth of knowledge, obvious fascination with the founder and company made the give and take of the interview very compelling.

[@salimmaalouf2423]

I just can't believe this is free for everybody to see, this is amazing!!!!!!

[@royk.9347]

Man I love the teaser intro, to the transition into the Acquired intro song and logo. An epic intro to an epic conversation.

[@hakansarbyk2725]

My key takeaways 13:30 For a lot of problems we kind of dont care about causality we just care about predictability of it do i really care for what reason you prefer this toothpaste over that i dont really care the causality … and so casuality for a lot of problems in the world doesnt matter 29:15 your organization should be the architecture of the machinery of building the product thats what a company is yet everybody’s company look exactly the same but they all build different things 30:15 there is a phrase in the company called mission is the boss 31:30 nobody has more power (the information) than anybody else the new college grad learned at exactly the same time as the executive staff 01:09:15 i have never read a sciFi book before 01:10:30 i read Klay Cristensen’s business book and its the best and others for example Andy Grove’s books 01:12:00 dont let outlook be the controller of your time … just dont do everything prioritize your life, make sacrifices 01:12:50 i am afraid of letting employees down 01:20:50 the superpower of an entrepreneur they dont know how hard it is and they only ask themselves how hard can it be

[@nofear6235]

Love it. Great interview and all participants

[@stefan-bayer]

Great time to be alive to directly learn from the builders - loved all the stories and insights! Thank you for your work- Best Regards from Stuttgart Germany!

[@paulyhchang]

Terrific podcast. How can anyone not like Jensen. Amazingly down to earth person.

[@temjim]

Such a great interview filled with lots of wisdom and nuggets! Thanks!

[@kenny0626]

This interview is so good. Thanks guys.

[@darth.mingdom]

This was so good!! I’m so impressed by Jensen

[@fikrihaikal1353]

Thank god, I found this channel

[@RaghavWate]

amazing! Jensen said would not do it again if somehow he was 30 again. it takes sheer courage and perseverance. luck plays a part only because they never stopped. backs against the wall, money running out, and knowing it is all in with the 1 tape-out chip. only to realize let's restart mass-production, marketing in tapped and untapped areas is a story undertold and undersold

[@dmalka336]

Thank you for this beautiful and inspiring content.

[@ernestodelaespriella481]

Awesome pod!!

[@jaitanmartini1478]

I love Jensen's personality.

[@dmalka336]

He seems like such a fine man.

[@josephwong2832]

awesome interview

[@rare6499]

Brilliant interview I especially loved him talking about the early days of the company. Fantastic stuff. My first graphics card that I bought with my own money was a Nvidia TNT2. Great times!!

[@Daynja1]

Same. I still have it too. I'll never forget how good it made quake 2 look.

[@tzenmatteo]

Great stuff, nice to see passion never dies.

[@yves1926]

The leather jacket

[@stefan-bayer]

Great talk, so many amazing nuggets of knowledge inside!

[@gordonsun2202]

This was incredible. Such an inspiration for AAPI founders

[@littlelilacbunny]

🎉🎉🎉

[@yuelin8414]

bravo!!!!!! Love this interview so much! Inspiring, fun, genuine😍

[@jjdizz1l]

This was pure excellence. I enjoyed this conversation thoroughly. Thank you for hosting and sharing with us.

[@thesadboxman]

Incredible interview!

[@nexusyang4832]

52:13 - Before RIVA128, there was the NV1 and the NV2. Had it been not the financial support from Sega for the development of NV2, NV3, aka, RIVA128 would not exist.

[@stefan-bayer]

Thanks for commenting your insights! Appreciate it :)

[@greatmentors391]

i can hear jensen huang talk all my life....he makes extremely hard things look so meaningful and exciting...i wish i had a teacher like him

[@Alex-pm8wr]

Yes, and he's humble while being extremely smart. He's a good leader. He doesn't fire people on the spot like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. He worked with others to make them great too with him (rather than going solo glory or tear others down to be great.) A true leader without pettiness and anger or letting things get into his head.)

[@MARKXHWANG]

Jensen Huang is so much better than Steven Jobs and Elon Musk combined… He win every single time by having a vision 15+ years ahead of anyone

[@GSP-76]

He definitely didn't account for silicon die process limitations. He foolishly played games with TSMC in the midst of them leapfrogging every fab on the planet thinking they needed his business more than he needed them. He was forced to look stupid going with Samsung's terrible 8nm and then came crying back to TSMC and paid even more for the 40 series to be built on TSMC 4nm. Nvidia also has nothing in terms of MCM. AMD has been perfecting it for 10 years now and they are still facing hurdles in the GPU sector. The entire technology sector is about to hit a wall unless they're actively pivoting to MCM technologies. Coincidentally, it was because of that, that Nvidia dumped a load of money into machine learning and DLSS. They can't survive without it going forward.

[@real23lions]

Pretty sure he lost a few times but he’s having a good win now.

[@macdonald2k]

​@@GSP-76Good thing Nvidia has been building MCMs for a while.

[@keanuwapples1603]

Key is sticking to it. The vision is the easy part honestly

[@chrismoyo1222]

I love Steve Jobs and Elon is my guy. Don't hate, just appreciate Don't compare either, cos my Tesla and my I Pad do improve my lifestyle in ways you will never comprehend. I love Jensen also. He is doing his thing, he is not hating!

[@Eternalspring22]

Thank you, this is invaluable insight. ❤

[@AC-ge2tr]

Amazing you guys

[@greggallo9906]

Whoa! Thank you.

[@marionogueiraramos9488]

fantastic work!

[@digitalsoulopreneur]

What an interview… 😮

[@geort45]

Very interesting to hear explicitly from him, the catalyst that was quake in openGL... damn

[@biniamteklay8694]

Awesome job guys!!

[@LowBudgetCapitalist]

Great job 👏👍

[@17713bb]

Thank you, stunning good.

[@chiekenwanna-nzewunwa1773]

Great video

[@joshreji7510]

Wow!! Simply incredible

[@gvr6]

THANK YOU

[@supermammal17]

Awkward asf 😂

[@wonton120]

Jensen Huang is a genius and great man.

[@salami99]

this remind me of the old nivida pre 2015. they made so many breakthroughs.

[@-dimar-]

really great interview. thanks

[@tapasbhattacharjee3426]

Great job guys!

[@LibertyRPF]

Amazing! Great stuff guys! 💚 🥃

[@MrVegasUA]

That’s fucking super powerful interview

[@greanbean001]

i could be completely wrong but i think making financial forecast is not all waste but help you think thru and simulate what the end may look like, whether its worth pursuing and the key drivers to focus on. its the thinking process rather than the made up outcome (that nobody knows is right or wrong) that matters. what did i miss or understand incorrectly? keen to hear your thoughts

[@michaelmktan3733]

Incredible leader

[@VK-TECH223]

Really love it and lots of episodes. So inspiring. Thanks-

[@georgeswaim8118]

Why compare apples oranges and breads all 4 (plus beso) are the greatest of our time- shaping the years to come!

[@Xploder270]

This is so different from the Jensen we know from Nvidia's keynotes, much more sympathetic!

[@korniszon68]

37:40 great said! Jensen is great.

[@YesCivic-R]

That's like COBOL programing, AI add data generation and much faster in very large scale ( accerate computing) combined with lots of alogrithm modules, simple is that.

[@christopherarmstrong2710]

1:07:04 Fave biz books Pt1 1:10:23 Jensen’s fave business books Pt2

[@d7ffab979]

The only inspiring CEO left in Silicon Valley. Makes you wanna work for him.

[@allan1brown]

Cant help liking this guy

[@nai9919j]

Awesomeness.. about Nvidia

[@pjleroy5181]

Just decided for the like the twentieth time, I'll never sell nvidia lol. Good interview guys

[@kaiman5307]

Mr Jensen should be the global leader for the world.

[@woolfel]

good interview. when Nvidia bought melanox, I had a suspicion Jensen was going all in on data center. He really was ahead of everyone else and made good bets. If only he brought RTX card prices down below 1000.00 USD, everyone would be happier. Nvidia has gotten to greedy and RTX cards are way too expensive today.

[@kayrealist9793]

The only company i want to work for is NVIDIA.

[@nexusyang4832]

55:14 - The question is, would Jensen pour one out for EVGA?

[@CasinoBaccaratKingmaker]

NVIDIA is the best company for AI era ❤

[@krimdelko]

Jensen thinks in simple terms. Thinking in simple terms is hard.

[@bilalahmed642]

i would ask where dose he buys jakets from

[@Wobbothe3rd]

Jensen is a hero.

[@CaptainBlaine]

A couple of giggling schoolgirls nervously interviewing one of the great CEOs of our time. Somehow it all worked out. Lol

[@moepharmo]

Loved to have 10% of Jensen brain power the man is Amazing

[@cattuswitch7246]

I'm not fooled by this guys calm voice. Huang is a goddamn madman.

[@tiromandal6399]

Jensen sure knows his recipes!

[@CasinoBaccaratKingmaker]

NVDA $940 now ❤❤❤

[@user-pb8bh3vm3s]

Is this the price of a stock 940?

[@CasinoBaccaratKingmaker]

@@user-pb8bh3vm3s yes

[@pianobench6319]

51:06 the UDA of CUDA

[@asciidiego]

Thank you for bringing Jensen! But please, don't interrupt!

[@asciidiego]

For example, at minute 52:50. Are these kind of interactions necessary?

[@pmcgee003]

Almost always, talking to business leaders : uninspiring. Talking to academic leaders : usually awesome.

[@abdellahcodes]

what happened with Jensen's audio?

[@user-pb8bh3vm3s]

How does one achieve stock options in the company Nvidia

[@user-pb8bh3vm3s]

Very impressed by his knowledge down to earth man no nonsense, self-made man would love to invest in his company

[@BSPoK]

He is very good 😳..

[@tlopez5069]

Many people don't start a company, because in their mind they have already failed, they don't want to take the pain and suffering and being a fool before being a master.

[@greatmentors391]

jensen is the most important man in the tech i feel ...

[@danzwku]

what software do you guys use for video calling at 0:00 where it splits in half like that?

[@EstellaWhite-ws7gh]

🎉❤🎉

[@Pachacu-Tech]

14:00 - The universal computer

[@repero_one1028]

19:20 all make sense 😅