Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA

In this View From The Top interview, Shantam Jain, MBA ’24, speaks with Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA. As of March 1, 2024, NVIDIA is the third most valuable company on Wall Street, with over $2T in market value. Jensen shares his experience founding NVIDIA, getting funded, building the first killer application for NVIDIA’s technology, deciding which markets are worth exploring, finding the conviction in making non-consensus bets, steering the company through challenging times, designing the right organization structure, and finally, his views on the AI revolution. Excerpts from the interview: – On reputation: “You can have a good or bad interview, but you can’t run away from your past, so have a good past; I was probably Denny’s [first job] best dishwasher” – On early days: “In order for NVIDIA to succeed we needed another startup to succeed—EA… and EA’s CTO was 14 and had to be driven to work by his mom… that’s who we were relying on” – On markets: “If someone else can do it, let them do it; focus on–if I don’t do it, it won’t get done” – On core beliefs: “My reaction during that time [when NVIDIA lost 80% of market value in the financial crisis], is the same reaction I had about this week [when NVIDIA crossed $2T and became the 3rd most valuable company on Wall Street]” – On unique organizational design: “You have to go back to first principles … as a CEO I have to architect the company and create an organization that allows my employees to do their life’s work”