The discussion dives into the remarkable journey of Nvidia, a company that was primarily known for video game graphics but made a significant pivot towards AI computing.
It explores how Nvidia’s strategic shift and willingness to bet on unproven markets transformed it into a global leader in AI computing.
The narrative is driven by the insights and experiences of Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang.
The Founding of Nvidia
Nvidia was founded by three individuals who were working in the workstation industry during the ’80s.
Recognizing the potential of the PC revolution that was just beginning in 1993, they decided to enable gaming on these systems by developing 3D graphic chips for personal computers despite having no prior experience with PCs or programming Windows or DOS.
Investment and Initial Hurdles
Securing funding from Sequoia Capital marked the start of Nvidia’s journey.
However, entering an already crowded market for 2D graphics for PCs and differentiating themselves with 3D graphics proved challenging.
Additionally, gaming on PCs wasn’t considered a serious application at that time, posing another hurdle.
Every CEO’s job is supposed to look around corners. By definition, we should be able to connect more dots. The CEO also has to be the most bold about what opportunities, what problems we can go solve that nobody imagines us solving. – Jensen Huang
