NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang on Friday inspired Caltech graduates to pursue their craft with dedication and resilience — and to view setbacks as new alternatives.
“I hope you consider in one thing. One thing unconventional, one thing unexplored. However let or not it’s knowledgeable, and let or not it’s reasoned, and dedicate your self to creating that occur,” he stated. “Chances are you’ll discover your GPU. Chances are you’ll discover your CUDA. Chances are you’ll discover your generative AI. Chances are you’ll discover your NVIDIA.”
Buying and selling his signature leather-based jacket for black and yellow tutorial regalia, Huang addressed the practically 600 graduates at their graduation ceremony in Pasadena, Calif., beginning with the story of the computing trade’s decades-long evolution to succeed in this pivotal second of AI transformation.
“Computer systems at this time are the one most vital instrument of information, and it’s foundational to each single trade in each subject of science,” Huang stated. “As you enter trade, it’s vital what’s taking place.”
He shared how, over a decade in the past, NVIDIA — a small firm on the time — wager on deep studying, investing billions of {dollars} and years of engineering sources to reinvent each computing layer.
“Nobody knew how far deep studying may scale, and if we didn’t construct it, we’d by no means know,” Huang stated. Referencing the well-known line from Discipline of Desires — when you construct it, he’ll come — he stated, “Our logic is: If we don’t construct it, they’ll’t come.”
Seeking to the long run, Huang stated, the following wave of AI is robotics, a subject the place NVIDIA’s journey resulted from a collection of setbacks.
He mirrored on a interval in NVIDIA’s previous when the corporate every year constructed new merchandise that “could be extremely profitable, generate monumental quantities of pleasure. After which one 12 months later, we had been kicked out of these markets.”
These roadblocks pushed NVIDIA to hunt out untapped areas — what Huang refers to as “zero-billion-dollar markets.”
“With no extra markets to show to, we determined to construct one thing the place we’re certain there aren’t any prospects,” Huang stated. “As a result of one of many issues you may positively assure is the place there aren’t any prospects, there are additionally no opponents.”
Robotics was that new market. NVIDIA constructed the primary robotics laptop, Huang stated, processing a deep studying algorithm. Over a decade later, that pivot has given the corporate the chance to create the following wave of AI.
“One setback after one other, we shook it off and skated to the following alternative. Every time, we achieve expertise and strengthen our character,” Huang stated. “No setback that comes our approach doesn’t appear like a chance nowadays.”
Huang careworn the significance of resilience and agility as superpowers that strengthen character.
“The world will be unfair and deal you with powerful playing cards. Swiftly shake it off,” he stated, with a tongue-in-cheek reference to certainly one of Taylor Swift’s largest hits. “There’s one other alternative on the market — or create one.”
Huang concluded by sharing a narrative from his travels to Japan, the place, as he watched a gardener painstakingly tending to Kyoto’s well-known moss backyard, he realized that when an individual is devoted to their craft and prioritizes doing their life’s work, they all the time have loads of time.
“Prioritize your life,” he stated, “and you should have loads of time to do the vital issues.”
Foremost picture courtesy of Caltech.
