‘I Wouldn’t Do It’: Nvidia CEO On If He Would Start the Company Again
Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang recently sat down with Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal for an episode of their podcast Acquired and got refreshingly candid about how difficult it really is to start a company.
Rosenthal gave Huang a hypothetical situation, “if you were magically 30 years old again, today in 2023, and you’re going to Denny’s with your two best friends — who are the two smartest people you know — and you’re talking about starting a company, what are you talking about starting?”
“I wouldn’t do it,” Huang said. “The reason why I wouldn’t do it … is building a company, building Nvidia, turned out to have been a million times harder than I expected it to be, [than] any of us expected it to be.”
Huang goes on to talk about how they wouldn’t have done it if they had known about the “pain and suffering, and just how vulnerable you’re gonna feel, and the challenges that you’re gonna endure, the embarrassment and the shame, and the list of things that could go wrong” starting the now USD 1 trillion company.
“I think that’s kind of the superpower of an entrepreneur. They don’t know how hard it is, and they only ask themselves, ‘How hard can it be?’”
30 years into its existence, the chipmaker has become one of the world’s most valuable companies with its market value blowing past the 1-trillion dollar mark this year due largely to its role in the advancement of AI technology.
On Wednesday, Nvidia announced a partnership with Taiwan-based Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker. The two companies will build “AI factories” to power a “new type” of data center for manufacturing a range of products including autonomous vehicles.
Information for this story was found via Stocktwits, Acquired, Reuters, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
