timing is everything. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told graduates this weekend that they’re starting their careers at a great time, thanks to opportunities in artificial intelligence.
Nvidia’s market cap approaches $1 trillion this week—after leaving Meta, Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway in the dust—the California-based chipmaker reported a stronger-than-expected quarter and forecast sales of $11 billion in the coming quarter 50% higher than analyst expectations. Huang described the “incredible orders” as data centers were looking to become AI enabled.
In a keynote address at the convocation of National Taiwan University, in Taipei on Saturday, Huang said he too has benefited from good times. After spending some of his childhood in Taiwan, he graduated from Oregon State University in 1984, when the introduction of the Apple Macintosh helped revolutionize personal computing.
1984 was “an ideal year to graduate,” he said, “and I predict 2023 will be the same.”
In 2023, he continued, graduates will join the workforce just as AI has “raised computing from the ground up. In every way it is a rebirth of the computer industry.”
“AI has opened up immense opportunities,” the billionaire CEO continued. “Agile companies will leverage AI and boost their position,” while firms that don’t will perish. Graduates should “take advantage of AI and do amazing things with the AI copilot by your side,” he said.
AI will “create new jobs that didn’t exist before,” such as rapid engineering, AI factory operations and AI security engineers, he said. He acknowledged that some jobs will be lost due to automation, but added that while people are worried about losing their jobs due to AI, they may actually lose it to someone who uses AI. have become more expert in
Huang urged the graduates to “have the humility to face failure and admit fault”, telling them that they would “suffer pain and suffering.” He described the failures in Nvidia’s early days as “humiliating and embarrassing”. For example, Nvidia realized at one point that its “technically poor” architecture was the “wrong strategy”, but had already won a contract with Sega to help build a new gaming console using it. .
“We had to stop, but I needed Sega to pay me in full or Nvidia would go out of business. I was embarrassed to ask,” he explained, but to his amazement Sega’s CEO, Nvidia, agreed. to” six months to live.
Nvidia survived, becoming a major player first in the gaming industry and now in artificial intelligence.
With the AI era here, Huang urged the graduates to “run after it like we did. Run, don’t walk.”
