"Run vigorously towards your dreams; do not walk, run; be the predator, not the prey." NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, was invited today to attend the graduation ceremony at National Taiwan University. He started his speech with a greeting in Taiwanese and encouraged students to adapt and exploit the wave of new technology, especially in the current AI generation. This article records the three stories Huang spoke of, along with related discussions.
Story One: Understand that you may make mistakes
We should stay humble, aware that we can make mistakes, and seek help from others.
The first product was a 3D graphics card developed for computer games, seeking to collaborate with Japanese game industry SEGA. However, a year later, they realized their strategy was flawed; if they continued, SEGA's console technology would become incompatible with the Windows system. Faced with this problem, Huang had to explain to SEGA's CEO that NVIDIA could not continue to fulfill the contract and hoped that SEGA could find another partner while also hoping SEGA could pay the full contract cost, or else NVIDIA would risk bankruptcy.
At the last moment, SEGA agreed to the proposal, giving NVIDIA a six-month buffer time, during which they developed the RIVA 128 graphics card. Just as NVIDIA's funds were running out, this new graphics card caused a sensation in the 3D market and turned their fate around.
Story Two: Long-term vision
We need to have a long-term vision, believe in the future, and persist in doing what should be done.
The second story is about Huang's firm investment in CUDA, a technology that allows developers to use NVIDIA graphics cards for calculations beyond graphics. Although the public thought that the primary use of NVIDIA's graphics cards was only for gaming or 3D drawing, Huang firmly believed that NVIDIA's graphics cards could one day break through the computing market dominated by CPUs. When someone used the GTX580 for deep learning in 2012, NVIDIA finally realized they had become a crucial tool for AI researchers, and their efforts finally paid off.
Story Three: Knowing when to give up
The third story is about NVIDIA choosing to exit the smartphone market. As many may know, NVIDIA had the opportunity to enter the smartphone chip market (i.e., the Tegra series processors). However, the smartphone chip market had already become saturated, and despite good stock performance, NVIDIA decided to withdraw from the smartphone processor market, turning its research direction towards the robotics computer market to create new business opportunities. In his conclusion, Huang reminded the NTU graduates, "Retreat might not be easy for smart individuals like you, but to succeed, apart from understanding your true needs, sometimes strategic retreat is necessary."
Discussion One: What we shouldn't do
What Huang discussed aligns with what Steve Jobs said years ago, "Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do."
In current strategic thinking, we may need to pay more attention to "what we shouldn't do," not just "what we want to do." Sometimes, we return to the traditional company structure, focusing on vertical growth while trying to achieve horizontal expansion. This situation may create a sense of misplaced priorities and bring certain risks. In such situations, entrepreneurs must clearly assess the survival time of the company and concentrate all resources on one key project, abandoning the rest. This is a strategic retreat and a necessity for survival.
Discussion Two: Encouraging failure
In Taiwanese culture, we often mock failure. This phenomenon might resonate deeply with many people, as we often value safe and stable results over the outcomes of challenges. Challenges could bring gains and growth, yet the climate in Taiwan does not encourage it enough. This is a common phenomenon in our daily life and something we need to change.
Discussion Three: Strategic retreat is not complacency
The strategic withdrawal after hard work and realizing failure is imminent is a choice made after effort has been made. It is essentially different from choosing to give up or "lie flat" without trying. We must understand the wisdom behind "giving up." If we decide not to succeed and give up without thoughtful consideration, we are likely just "lying flat" and not making a strategic choice.
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Conclusion
Jensen Huang inspires us with his experience and stories at NVIDIA, recounting the frustrations and courage on the entrepreneurial road. He also reminds us that when facing challenges, we should confront our mistakes humbly, maintain a long-term vision, and make a strategic retreat when appropriate. As Huang said, "Choosing what to do or not to do is a lifelong lesson for a leader." Let us persist in independent thinking and make good use of our wisdom.
Let's encourage everyone, when facing future challenges, to exceed oneself and create astonishing achievements, just like the unlimited potential of GPUs.
Appendix: Full Transcript
FromYahoo奇摩
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed faculty members, distinguished guests, proud parents, and above all, the 2023 graduating class of the National Taiwan University. Today is a very special day for you, and a dream come true for your parents.
You should be moving out soon. It is surely a day of pride and joy.So, your parents have made sacrifices to see you on this day. My parents are here, and so is my brother. Let's show all of our parents and our grandparents, many of them are here, our appreciation.
I came to NTU for the first time over a decade ago. Dr. Chen invited me to visit his computational physics lab. As I recall, his son, based in Silicon Valley, had learned of NVIDIA's CUDA invention and recommended his father utilize it for his quantum physics simulations. When I arrived, he opened the door to show me what he had made. NVIDIA GeForce gaming cards filled the room, plugged into open PC motherboards, and sitting on metal shelves in the aisles were oscillating platform fans.
Dr. Chen had built a homemade supercomputer, the Taiwanese Way, out of gaming graphics cards. He started here, an early example of NVIDIA's journey. He was so proud, and he said to me, Mr. Huang, because of your work, I can do my life's work. Those words touch me to this day, and perfectly capture our company's purpose, to help the Einstein and Da Vinci of our time do their life's work.
Those words touch me to this day, and perfectly capture our company's purpose, to help the Einstein and Da Vinci of our time do their life's work.
I am so happy to be back at NTU, and to be your commencement address. The world was simpler when I graduated from Oregon State University. TVs were not flat yet. There was no cable television, and MTV.
I am so happy to be back at NTU, and to be your commencement address. The world was simpler when I graduated from Oregon State University. TVs were not flat yet. There was no cable television, and MTV. And started the chip and software industry that we know today. You enter a far more complex world, with geopolitical, social, and environmental changes and challenges.
Surrounded by technology, we are now perpetually connected, and immersed in a digital world that parallels our real world. Cars are starting to drive by themselves.
AI will create new jobs that didn't exist before
Forty years after the computer industry created the home PC, we invented artificial intelligence. Like software that automatically drives a car, or studies x-ray images, AI software has opened the door for computers to automate tasks for the world's largest, multi-trillion dollars of industries. Healthcare, financial services, transportation, and manufacturing. AI has opened immense opportunities.
Agile companies will take advantage of AI, and boost their position. Companies less so, will perish. Entrepreneurs, many of them here today, will start new companies.
And like in every computing era before, create new industries. AI will create new jobs that didn't exist before. Like data engineering, prompt engineering, AI factory operations, and AI safety engineers.
These are jobs that never existed before. Automated tasks will obsolete some jobs. And for sure, AI will change every job. Supercharging the performance of programmers, designers, artists, marketers, and manufacturing planners.
Just as every generation before you embraced technologies to succeed, every company, and you, must learn to take advantage of AI. And do amazing things with an AI co-pilot by your side.
While some worry that AI may take their jobs, someone who expert with AI will. We are at the beginning of a major technology era, like PC, internet, mobile, and cloud. But AI is far more fundamental because every computing layer has been reinvented, from how we write software to how it's processed.
AI has reinvented computing from the ground up. In every way, this is a rebirth of the computer industry. And a golden opportunity for the companies of Taiwan.
You are the foundation and bedrock of the computer industry. Within the next decade, our industry will replace over a trillion dollars of the world's traditional computers with new, accelerated AI computers.
The first story of NVIDIA: Confronting mistakes and asking for help
My journey started 40 years before yours. 1984 was a perfect year to graduate. I predict that 2023 will be as well. What can I tell you as you begin your journey? Today is the most successful day of your life so far. You're graduating from the National Taiwan University. I was also successful until I started NVIDIA.
At NVIDIA, I experienced failures. Great big ones. All humiliating and embarrassing. Many nearly doomed us. Let me tell you three NVIDIA stories that define us today.
We founded NVIDIA to create accelerated computing. Our first application was 3D graphics for PC gaming. We invented an unconventional 3D approach called forward texture mapping and curves. Our approach was substantially lower cost. We won a contract with SEGA to build their game console, which attracted games for our platform and funded our company.
After one year of development, we realized our architecture was the wrong strategy. It was technically poor. And Microsoft was about to announce Windows 95 Direct 3D based on inverse texture mapping and triangles.
Many companies were already working on 3D chips to support this standard. If we completed SEGA's game console, we would have built inferior technology, be incompatible with Windows, and be too far behind to catch up.
But we would be out of money if we didn't finish the contract. Either way, we would be out of business. I contacted the CEO of SEGA and explained that our invention was the wrong approach. That SEGA should find another partner. And that we could not complete the contract and the console. We had to stop. But I needed Sega to pay us in whole. Or NVIDIA would be out of business.
I was embarrassed to ask. Irimajiri-san, the CEO of SEGA, to his credit and my amazement, agreed.
His understanding and generosity gave us six months to live. With that, we built RIVA 128. Just as we were running out of money. RIVA 128 shocked the young 3D market, put us on the map, and saved the company.
The strong demand for our chip led me back to Taiwan after leaving at the age of four to meet Morris Chang at TSMC and started a partnership that has lasted 25 years. Confronting our mistake and with humility asking for help, save NVIDIA.
These traits are the hardest for the brightest and most successful like yourself.
The second story of NVIDIA: Endure pain and suffering needed to realize your dreams
In 2007, we announced CUDA GPU Accelerated Computing. Our aspiration was for CUDA to become a programming model that boosts applications from scientific computing and physics simulations to image processing. Creating a new computing model is incredibly hard and rarely done in history.
The CPU computing model has been the standard for 60 years since the IBM System 360. CUDA needed developers to write applications and demonstrate the benefits of the GPU.
Developers needed a large installed base. A large CUDA installed base needed customers buying new applications. To solve the chicken or the egg problem, we used GeForce, our gaming GPU, which already had a large market of gamers, to build the installed base.
But the added cost of CUDA was very high. NVIDIA's profits took a huge hit for many years. Our market cap hovered just above $1 billion. We suffered many years of poor performance. Our shareholders were skeptical of CUDA. And preferred we focused on improving profitability. But we persevered.
We believed a time for accelerated computing would come. We created a conference called GTC and promoted CUDA tirelessly worldwide. Then the applications came.
Seismic processing, CT reconstruction, molecular dynamics, particle physics, fluid dynamics, and image processing. One science domain after another, they came. We worked with each developer to write their algorithms and achieved incredible speedups. Then, in 2012, AI researchers discovered CUDA.
The famous AlexNet trained on GeForce GTX 580 started the Big Bang of AI. Fortunately, we realized the potential of deep learning as a whole new software approach. And turned every aspect of our company to advance this new field.
We risked everything to pursue deep learning. A decade later, the AI revolution started. And NVIDIA is the engine of AI developers worldwide. We invented CUDA and pioneered accelerated computing and AI. But the journey forged our corporate character to endure the pain and suffering that is always needed to realize a vision.
The third story of NVIDIA: Strategic retreat
One more story. In 2010, Google aimed to develop Android into a mobile computer with excellent graphics. The phone industry had chip companies with modem expertise. NVIDIA's computing and graphics expertise made us an ideal partner to help build Android. So we entered the mobile chip market.
We were instantly successful. And our business and stock price surged. The competition quickly swarmed. Modem chip makers were learning how to build computing chips. And we were learning how to build modems.
The phone market is huge. We could fight for share. Instead, we made a hard decision and sacrificed the market.
NVIDIA's mission is to build computers to solve problems that ordinary computers cannot. We should dedicate ourselves to realizing our vision and to making a unique contribution.
Our strategic retreat paid off. By leaving the phone market, we opened our minds to invent a new one. We imagined creating a new type of computer for robotic computers.With neural network processor, safety architectures that run AI algorithms.
At the time, this was a zero billion dollar market. To retreat from a giant phone market to create a zero billion dollar robotics market. We now have billions of dollars of automotive and robotics business and started a new industry.
Retreat does not come easily to the brightest and most successful people like yourself.
Yet, strategic retreat, sacrifice, deciding what to give up, is that a core, the very core of success?
Class of 2023, you're about to go into a world witnessing great change. And just as I was with the PC and chip revolution, you're at the beginning, at the starting line of AI. Every industry will be revolutionized. Reborn.
Ready for new ideas. Your ideas. In 40 years, we created the PC, internet, mobile, cloud, and now the AI era.
What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it like we did. Run. Don't walk. Remember, either you're running for food, or you are running from being food.
I hope that part can be translated into Chinese so that everyone can understand.
Either you're running for food, or you are running from becoming food.
And oftentimes, you can't tell which. Either way, run. And for your journey, take along some of my learnings. That you will have the humility to confront failure, admit a mistake, and ask for help. You will endure pain and suffering needed to realize your dreams. And you will make sacrifices to dedicate yourself to a life of purpose and doing your life's work.
Class of 2023, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to each one of you. Jiayou!
