From Tech Unheard, October 9:
SummaryIn the first episode of Tech Unheard, Arm CEO Rene Haas, sits down with Jensen Huang, the Founder, President and CEO of NVIDIA. In this unfiltered conversation between two long-term colleagues and friends, the episode dives into Jensen’s journey as the Founder of one of the world’s largest technology companies, as well as exploring the future of AI and how NVIDIA’s unique culture of relentless innovation and ambition continues to push the boundaries of technology.
The Tech Unheard podcast series takes listeners behind the scenes of the most exciting developments in technology, with Rene talking with some of the brightest minds in the industry to share insights, stories and a vision for what lies ahead.
Transcript
[music comes in]
Rene:[0:00]
Welcome to Tech Unheard, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the most exciting developments in technology. I’m Rene Haas, CEO of Arm. At Arm we’re shaping the future of computing with the industry’s most powerful and energy-efficient compute platform designed to unlock the full potential of AI. Our technology is at the core of innovation for leading companies across the globe. In this podcast, I’ll be sitting down with some of the brightest minds in the industry to share insights, stories and vision for what lies ahead.
Today, I have the privilege to speak with Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA. A true visionary, my former boss and a personal mentor of mine. We’re going to dive into his journey, the future of AI and how NVIDIA’s unique culture of relentless innovation and ambition continues to push the boundaries of technology. We sat down and met at NVIDIA’s headquarters in Santa Clara to talk.
[music crescendos and then fades out]
Rene:[1:02]
Ready to go?
Jensen:[1:03]
I was ready the moment I walked in.
Rene:[1:05]
It’s great to be back.
Jensen:[1:06]
Well, thank you. Yeah, it’s great. It’s great to see you.
Rene:[1:08]
It’s great to be back here at NVIDIA. This building did not exist when I worked here many, many years ago.
Jensen:[1:14]
How many? How many years ago now? 20? (When you first started?)
Rene:[1:17]
I started in 2006. I left in 2013.
Jensen:[1:21]
Yeah, see? 20 years.
Rene:[1:22]
Yeah. 20 years ago. These buildings did not exist. It’s a, it’s a nice feeling to be back, though.
Familiar. Thanks for, thanks for spending the time.
Jensen:[1:27]
Thanks for having me.
Rene:[1:28]
So now that you’ve grown so large, one of things I’ve always been curious about, Jensen, with NVIDIA is hiring. The culture is one of a kind. The company does things in a one-of-a-kind way. How do you identify folks who are going to be successful inside NVIDIA?
Jensen:[1:42]
We’re not always successful in doing that. Look how you turned out. [laughter] That’s [laughter] it’s always a shot in the dark. I think that the interview process is not an excellent way to judge whether somebody is a good fit. I mean, obviously, everybody could pretend to have a very constructive conversation. You could learn a lot from just watching YouTube on how to interview. And so, you know, the technical questions, of course, people even share what NVIDIA technical questions are. And we try to be as rigorous and difficult as possible. But – but it’s hard. I think that my method is always I go back to reference checks, you know, and I ask them the questions that I was going to ask the candidate. And the reason for that is you could always make make for a great moment, but it’s hard for you to run away from your past. And so I think those are good. I like asking one in-depth question and just thinking about how they reason through it.
But I think in the final analysis, NVIDIA has been successful for a lot of people. Our attrition rate’s very low, as you know. And and so it’s a really diverse environment with a lot of really interesting people in the background. And we have people from from just about every great company in the world and somehow, we’ve made them successful here. And so I think that that on the one hand, building a great company is about getting great people. On the other hand, building a great company is really about creating the conditions by which those people could do even better than they thought they could. And, you know, a lot of that has to do with being transparent about explaining what NVIDIA’s vision and strategy and what makes us work. As you know, I spent a lot of time doing that. And our company has always been known for its transparency about explaining what what challenges we have, what opportunities we have, what strategies we’re executing. And information is flowing fairly readily inside the company with respect to, you know, what is it the company’s strategies are. I always find that it’s strange when companies have too many silos and, you know, need to know basis. I think obviously, you know, people don’t need to know what they don’t need to know. But the more that they know, the more they’re empowered to be able to make good decisions on our behalf. And so I try to err on the side of transparency. I try to err on the side of empowering people.
And as a result, you know, the company is one of the, I think we’re the smallest large company in the world....
....MUCH, MUCH MORE
HT: Barron's "Jensen Huang on the Future of AI and Nvidia’s Biggest Advantage"
I think I need some of that "music crescendos and then fades out." I tried entering rooms with a horn fanfare but it always seemed to just hang in the air. Need a fade.
