from Eldho Shaji
The Founding of NVIDIA
NVIDIA was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, who met in a Denny’s restaurant near San Jose to form the business with $40,000. Malachowsky and Priem had backgrounds from Sun Microsystems and some large technology firm. They initially called it NVision but then changed the name to NVIDIA after learning that the name was already registered. Faced with daunting odds and slim hopes for success, they received early funding from influential venture capitalist Don Valentine. In 2022, Denny’s honored the booth where they first met with a plaque reading: The NVIDIA Booth :” The booth that launched a trillion-dollar company”.
The Near-Death Gamble That Saved NVIDIA
Jensen Huang, whose passion for gaming sparked his idea for a growing business in high-performance graphics chips, watched game developers move toward 3D graphics using polygons most commonly, triangles. Rather than march with them, NVIDIA chose to break free, working its first chip to use quadrilaterals instead of triangles. That unorthodox move was catastrophic when a major industry launch shortly after the company was founded claimed that the software for graphics would only be able to use triangles. Suddenly, NVIDIA’s technology wasn’t compatible with the new standard, and the company found itself in survival mode.
With no leeway for error and the fate of the company at stake, Huang made a drastic decision. He dismissed half of the workers at NVIDIA around 50 employees and used all of the company’s working capital to design and manufacture an entirely new chip based on triangles. The plan was extremely high-risk, as the new product had not been tested and the company could only afford to pay salaries for another month. That product, the RIVA 128, was brought to market in a hurry of desperation. In defiance of odds, it was a commercial success, selling a million units within four months. This turnaround not only saved NVIDIA from insolvency but set the stage for its rise in the graphics chip business.
The Humble Leader Driving NVIDIA’s Culture of Innovation
Since the founding of NVIDIA in 1993, Jensen Huang has led the company from a startup to a trillion-dollar corporation. Despite his groundbreaking contribution, he is modest, always giving credit to his teams rather than himself. His employees and members on the board, however, see him as brilliant, irreplaceable, and central to the culture of NVIDIA. Huang believes in learning from failure and encourages “failure presentations” to analyze failures. He avoids rigid hierarchies, instead hearing short weekly reports from staff, and holding a broad overall image of the company. He also supports experimentation, financing ventures with no immediate markets, some of which, like CUDA, eventually become hugely profitable.
Believe in yourself and your abilities. You have the power to make a difference.” ~Jensen Huan
Closing Words
The story of Jensen Huang and the founding of NVIDIA is partly one of the sacrifices made by parents to give their children a better chance at life. But it’s also a story of innovation and a willingness to take risks to achieve something that has never been done before. His leadership at NVIDIA has been absolutely crucial and is one of the single most important factors in the company’s success. If it weren’t for his willingness to take bold risks, the company he leads and loves wouldn’t be where it is today. As the age of AI continues, Jensen Huang’s company will be there to deliver the hardware making it all possible, with him showing no signs of slowing down. He himself said it best in 2010: “I waited tables. I’m prepared for adversity.”
Sources:
https://www.supplychaintoday.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-quotes/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jen-Hsun_Huang
https://www.nvidia.com/de-de/about-nvidia/board-of-directors/jensen-huang
