NVIDIA

The company founded by Jensen Huang that evolved from a gaming-focused graphics firm to a leader in parallel computing.

“We're a hundred percent focused on the gaming industry. We were the first computer graphics company ever created to focus on one application industry fully, which was video games.”

The company struggled for a decade while investing in CUDA before becoming a leader in AI chips.

“unit, is like a kitchen with thousands of line cooks. Each one isn't as talented as the chef, but together these guys can crank out thousands of simple tasksAll at once. Now to make that kitchen do even more, Jensen poured billions of dollars into developing a…”

The company pivoted from gaming chips to AI, eventually becoming the world's largest company with significant global influence.

“[intro music] Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's twenty thirteen, and NVIDIA is now pivoting away from making chips for gaming to making chips for AI. And as the technology takes off, NVIDIA starts to soar right along with it. And I'm …”

The company is described as the world's most valuable, powering the AI revolution and surpassing the economic output of major nations.

“[gentle music] If NVIDIA were a country, it would be one of the five richest in the world, just behind the US and China. NVIDIA's value is now more than the entire economic output of Japan or the UK or France. That's how big this company is, and it's also prob…”

The company founded by Jensen Huang that aimed to bring 3D graphics to consumers.

“So NVIDIA is the company which I, I guess comes from the Latin word envy.”

The company faced a near-collapse scenario and had to lay off two-thirds of its staff to survive.

“And also, you, you now had to focus on making the NV3, which, which was a new chip that would actually work. Uh, and I mean, I mean, to be clear, you, you needed to do this not only to compete with all the other companies out there, but basically to save yours…”

The company that transitioned from gaming and 3D graphics to becoming a leader in AI through its CUDA platform.

“But then at this point, I mean, everything was about to change for NVIDIA because in the early 2010s, a group of researchers in Toronto bought two NVIDIA gaming GPUs, right, or GeForces. Uh, they plugged them into a computer in a bedroom, and then they trained…”

The company faced an existential crisis in the late 1990s and successfully recovered by betting on new technology.

“[gentle music] Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's the late 1990s and NVIDIA has escaped extinction by using an unproven machine to test its latest chip. And as it turns out, that new chip, the Riva 128, is a hit, which means the compan…”

The company led by Jensen Huang that developed the CUDA architecture and GeForce GPUs.

“I'm trying to understand, because basically from 2006 to 2012, your stock price was just either collapsing at times or wasn't moving. Uh, you had to refund hundreds of millions of dollars to people who didn't like the processors, and still there was this convi…”

The company founded by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowski, and Curtis Priem.

“... uh, were at Sun. These-- The story is that these guys wanted to create, at Sun Microsystems, a, a chip for specifically-”

The company founded by Jensen Huang, which his children have been involved with throughout their lives.

“... or even one instance. That's the gift that, that she gave me. And both kids love NVIDIA to their, to their core.”

The company led by Jensen Huang, noted for its central role in advanced chip production and its difficult history.

“... knowing the contribution we've made to the world, knowing the consequence of the company today, h-how it impacts so many different industries-”

The company co-founded and led by Jensen Huang, currently one of the most valuable in the world.

“... and the result now, the most-- I mean, you hear it a million times, and it's probably still crazy to hear it, the most valuable company in the world, right? I mean, the, the value of this company is bigger than most countries by far. Um, do you think that …”

Huang discusses how AI will augment his company's employees and accelerate development timelines.

“Do you think that there is a possibility that in ten years from now, NVIDIA will have an order of magnitude more employees?”

The company producing chips that are central to the AI arms race and trade restrictions between the U.S. and China.

“You know, the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was there, Huang, and they're, you know, obviously they're talking about how many chips should China get,”

A primary provider of GPUs for AI model development.

“Means a couple of different things. Number one, we use three different chip platforms. So we are customers of Amazon's Trainium chip, Google CPUs, and Nvidia's GPUs. We use these chips fungibly. If you think about the compute we buy, we're using it for model d…”

A critical chip platform partner for Anthropic's large language model development.

“We're fortunate in that we have really great partners in Amazon, in Google, in Microsoft, but also with Broadcom and Nvidia as well. Our ecosystem, we are the only model that's on all three clouds today. We're the only model that has large language lab that's …”

The company whose CEO was invited to discuss AI chip exports to China.

“I do. I think there's obviously going to be some back and forth. We'll see when this executive order comes out, like, what they do about the, the testing requirements and where they locate that, if it's like we're going to let the NSA do this, or we're going t…”

Cited as an example of a 100X company that experienced significant drawdowns.

“So think Nvidia-”

Compared to Cerebras as a market leader in AI chips with better fundamentals.

“So my prediction, chipmaker Cerebras went public today at a forty billion dollar valuation, and that's up from its twenty-three billion dollar valuation in February and eight billion in twenty twenty-five. And, uh, i-i-I believe it's over-- I believe it's play…”

The speaker notes that Nvidia hardware encoders currently contribute about 3.5 milliseconds to the total latency.

“Um, so far we, we achieve, um, seven milliseconds from a Windows to Windows or Window to Mac. Um, and if you look i-in the timing, most there is around three point five milliseconds inside the Nvidia, uh, hardware encoder and around two milliseconds on the Int…”

The company the speakers want to see win the global chip market to prevent Huawei from gaining dominance.

“And the reason we should sell the chips is we want NVIDIA to win. We do not want to give enough oxygen for Huawei to then all of a sudden emerge and have a version of a chip that works. And what Mark said is totally right. These models are catching up. They're…”

Mentioned as a key chip manufacturer whose products are part of the trade discussion between the US and China.

“... is that? Because if you look at, you know, commerce in China, it is dominated by companies like Alibaba and, and these organization who use these super apps. It's not really all the way open for a Visa and a Mastercard. That would be incredible for those e…”

The semiconductor company whose CEO is not attending the Beijing delegation, signaling potential trade setbacks.

“So this segues with the summit that we're about to see between Trump and Xi in Beijing this week. Uh, it's just been announced that CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, who was originally, I think, supposed to be part of the delegation of CEOs, small delegation going …”