Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as God in Taiwan
- June 7, 2024
- 0
The AI hype is huge, just like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He appears on stage like a pop star during Computex. Paparazzi everywhere, welcome to Taiwan. Nvidia is
The AI hype is huge, just like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He appears on stage like a pop star during Computex. Paparazzi everywhere, welcome to Taiwan. Nvidia is
The AI hype is huge, just like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He appears on stage like a pop star during Computex. Paparazzi everywhere, welcome to Taiwan.
Nvidia is at the top of the AI pack. No one is going to catch up, no matter how hard AMD or Intel try: the fastest chip (Blackwell) comes from Nvidia’s stable. Add to that the dominant CUDA platform and the shrewd acquisition of networking specialist Mellanox in 2018, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang counts himself rich.
The whole world looks at Nvidia with envy. Today it is the second most valuable company in the world after Microsoft. The day before yesterday Apple was in second place.
A perfect storm with Jensen in the middle. During Computex we feel this storm very strongly, paparazzi are everywhere, fans are screaming for an autograph and security people are escorting him safely everywhere. We meet the man three times in as many days.
His annual keynote speech to kick off Computex takes place at the NTU Sport Center, a university stadium with space for 4,200 people. Everything was packed, all the fans, analysts, press, shareholders, no seat left empty. An Nvidia T-shirt for the fans on every seat.
Say what you will about the Nvidia CEO, he can deliver a compelling keynote like the best. No autocue at the back of the room, Jensen knows what he wants to say and does it with passion and humor. Although the event is being livestreamed worldwide, he charms the locals with a few sentences of Mandarin in between.
Jensen was born in Taiwan and does business primarily with TSMC, the Taiwanese chip giant. One of the key messages of the two-hour keynote is the importance of Taiwan to the overall Nvidia story.
Cheers, applause, the man is clearly having fun. Local stories about a night market you should definitely visit and an anecdote about a lady with a fruit stall at this night market. The crowd is enjoying it.
This was followed by deafening applause. Time flew by. When it started at 7 p.m. we were a little hungry, but we didn’t notice it again until 9 p.m. Fifteen minutes later we rushed to the night market to get something to eat.
A little later, a group of four people come and sit behind us, all wearing their newly purchased Nvidia t-shirts. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the lady with the fruit stand because it was so late.
The next day we arrive at Computex and are greeted by a wall of photographers and cameramen holding their cameras high in the air. We can’t see who is being followed, maybe the mayor or the president?
We try to take a photo from high up. After a brief “Where’s Wally?” moment in our photos, we see Jensen in the middle with security guards in front of and behind him. Like a true rock star, he moves through the two halls of Computex to visit the most important partners.
Everyone is screaming for attention, so Jensen looks at them briefly to take a photo. Fans want autographs and try to get close. One woman even offers Jensen a piece of cloth on her chest to immortalize. He keeps smiling, the next customer is already ready to greet Jensen and his sea of people.
In the afternoon we have a quieter time for a Q&A session in a special session for the press. There are about a hundred people in the room. Jensen is half an hour late due to his extended visit to the trade show. Although most people are on a tight schedule for interviews, no one complains. Nvidia is and will remain the main attraction.
He sits down on a bar stool, but turns slightly to the right each time so that he is talking to the wall. Since Jensen is not tall, he cannot stop the turn with his foot. A hilarious sight that he also notices and laughs at. Then just a normal chair.
After the first question is asked, Jensen promptly asks for some food. The poor man barely had breakfast and barely got six TicTac coins due to his busy schedule. He is given a turkey wrap and listens to the question again. A minute later, the food is ready to go. Turkey way too dry, no mayonnaise, he needs another half minute to digest to remove the dry turkey. “This is how CEOs are fed: dry turkey and TicTac mints,” he says, laughing. This man has endless charisma.
In between, he tells jokes and anecdotes and is never nervous. Not even when he laughs and emphasizes to a journalist that she understands the last question, that it must be an important question, and she casually asks a geopolitical question. Once again, everyone bursts into laughter, but Jensen answers correctly and neutrally. You can read our questions about how he plans to develop towards an annual cadence of building AI chips and increasing consumption here.
At the end, many journalists sprinted to the front to get an autograph. Du jamais vu.
The reason Jensen is so revered by his fans and respected by journalists is because he is sincere in everything he does. He founded Nvidia in 1993 and remains the only CEO the company has ever had. If that company is now the second most valuable in the world after Microsoft, then you can only admire the man.
Where does it end? The end is not yet in sight. AI is gradually losing its hype, everyone wants chips from Nvidia. Yes, Intel and AMD also have competing chips at a potentially cheaper price, but it is the combination with CUDA that makes Nvidia strong in this segment. The full stack is extensive and offers something for everyone.
There’s a good chance Nvidia will soon become the most valuable company in the world. With Jensen at the helm, the sky’s the limit. Rockstar, comedian, lovable, everyone sticks to their words. We do too, because he may hold the future of the technology world in his hands.
Source: IT Daily
As an experienced journalist and author, Mary has been reporting on the latest news and trends for over 5 years. With a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines, Mary has earned a reputation as a trusted voice in the world of journalism. Her writing style is insightful, engaging and thought-provoking, as she takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues of our time.