One of the underlying themes of this success: Build the world’s most powerful computing platform, and the problems will come to you for the solution.
> born in taiwan
> worked as a dishwasher at Denny's
> went to Stanford
> got a job
> quit the job
> went to california
> started nvidia
> pitched sequoia w/o a business plan
> ventured into 3D chips
> launched failed with NV1 chips
> sold 250,000 to Diamond multimedia
> 249,000 returned back to nvidia
> NV1 ended in disaster
> developed NV2 with Sega
> NV2 was also doomed
> had 1 shot to create the perfect chip
> bought "emulator" from a dying company
> made RIVA 128NV3
> nvidia engineers made the best inverse texture mapping engine
> sold 1 million units
> developed first programmable chip GeForce 256
> that was the world's first GPU
> massive success
> went public in 1999
> partnered with Microsoft to build XBox
> didn't want to get trapped in the gaming market only
> 2006, decided to put CUDA in GPUs
> molecular dynamics, seismic processing, CT reconstruction, image processing were now open to explore
> andrew ng came in with his ug student ian goodfellow to build a GPU server in his dorm room
> 100x seedup in training neural networks on GPUs
> Yann LeCunn at NYU as doing the same, all if them reached out to nvidia
> Nvidia decided to put it's bet into AI which was in 2012 a 0 billion dollar market
> nvidia reached to every single AI researcher in the planet
> got positive feedback
> continued building for AI
> OpenAI launched ChatGPT
> suddenly everyone was bullish on AI
> 1999 stock price was <$0.5
> today, nvidia stands at $1220+
> a 298,534.15% increase
> 31 years of nvidia
> $3T in market cap in 2024
> born in taiwan
> worked as a dishwasher at Denny's
> went to Stanford
> got a job
> quit the job
> went to california
> started nvidia
> pitched sequoia w/o a business plan
> ventured into 3D chips
> launched failed with NV1 chips
> sold 250,000 to Diamond multimedia
> 249,000 returned back to nvidia
> NV1 ended in disaster
> developed NV2 with Sega
> NV2 was also doomed
> had 1 shot to create the perfect chip
> bought "emulator" from a dying company
> made RIVA 128NV3
> nvidia engineers made the best inverse texture mapping engine
> sold 1 million units
> developed first programmable chip GeForce 256
> that was the world's first GPU
> massive success
> went public in 1999
> partnered with Microsoft to build XBox
> didn't want to get trapped in the gaming market only
> 2006, decided to put CUDA in GPUs
> molecular dynamics, seismic processing, CT reconstruction, image processing were now open to explore
> andrew ng came in with his ug student ian goodfellow to build a GPU server in his dorm room
> 100x seedup in training neural networks on GPUs
> Yann LeCunn at NYU as doing the same, all if them reached out to nvidia
> Nvidia decided to put it's bet into AI which was in 2012 a 0 billion dollar market
> nvidia reached to every single AI researcher in the planet
> got positive feedback
> continued building for AI
> OpenAI launched ChatGPT
> suddenly everyone was bullish on AI
> 1999 stock price was <$0.5
> today, nvidia stands at $1220+
> a 298,534.15% increase
> 31 years of nvidia
> $3T in market cap in 2024
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