Jensen Huang: The Mindset That Built NVIDIA
Jul 26, 2026 · 49:00
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, tells Garry Tan that the company started with the wrong algorithm and saved itself by buying three textbooks from Fry's to learn computer graphics properly. He recounts how a $5 million payment from Sega after revealing the flawed technology kept NVIDIA alive, leading to a $300 million IPO in 1999. Huang explains that seeing AlexNet as a universal function approximator drove NVIDIA to reinvent the entire computing stack for AI, including agents and physical AI. He argues that systems thinking is the new coding, that agents will allow fine-grained control, and that open source platforms like OpenClaw and Hermes enable anyone to build their own AI. For founders, Huang emphasizes resilience—getting through one day at a time—and the attitude of "how hard can it be?" while noting that NVIDIA's physical AI business is already nearly $10 billion.
