Jensen Wong, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, sits down with Guy Roz to discuss how a graphics chip company for gamers became the world's most valuable company and the cornerstone of the AI revolution. Wong, born in Taiwan and educated in the US, co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 with Chris Malcolm and Curtis Preem after leaving successful careers in Silicon Valley.

The conversation traces NVIDIA's journey from near-bankruptcy in the 1990s through the development of CUDA technology in 2006, which transformed gaming GPUs into general-purpose supercomputers. Wong explains how the company carried this expensive technology on every gaming chip for decades, waiting for the right application to emerge.

Wong addresses current concerns about AI safety and job displacement, arguing that Western fears are hampering American competitiveness while other countries embrace the technology. He reflects on the personal costs of building NVIDIA, including missed family moments and the psychological toll of repeated failures, while maintaining that the company's success stems from strategic persistence and strong relationships.

From Boarding School to Silicon Valley's Graphics Revolution

Wong arrived in Kentucky at age nine to attend Oneida Baptist Institute, where he cleaned bathrooms and experienced McDonald's as 'magical' - 'the lights everywhere is like from outer space and all the food was in boxes.'

At Oregon State studying electrical engineering, Wong was 'the last generation of chip designers that did it by hand, and the first generation that used software' - designing chips with thousands of transistors versus today's trillion-transistor processors.

LSI Logic gave Wong early exposure to startup culture and strategic thinking, where he witnessed 'great technology, bad strategy, moderate technology, excellent strategy' across Silicon Valley companies.

NVIDIA's Near-Death Experience and the NV1 Disaster

The NV1 chip used 'forward texture mapping' while competitors used 'inverse texture mapping' - making NVIDIA incompatible with Microsoft's DirectX standard in Windows 95.

Wong flew to Japan to cancel NVIDIA's $12 million Sega contract, asking CEO Iramadri to convert the remaining $5 million into an investment: 'I'm not sure what my business plan is, but my first job as the CEO is to make sure we don't go out of business.'

The company bought a leftover emulator from a bankrupt company for half their remaining funds, with Wong declaring: 'We've got to put NVIDIA's chip, NV3, Riva 128, into this machine' - it had to work on the first try.

The CUDA Gamble: Building Tomorrow's Computing Platform

NVIDIA launched CUDA in 2006 to transform GPUs from gaming tools into general-purpose supercomputers, solving the 'chicken or the egg problem' by embedding it in every GeForce gaming chip.

Wong's strategy was inspired by The Innovator's Dilemma: 'The single most important thing about technology is the moment it becomes good enough, when you overserve the market, you're ready for disruption.'

For nearly a decade, NVIDIA's stock price stagnated as they carried CUDA's cost: 'GeForce carried CUDA on its back for literally 25 years now' while competitors didn't have this burden.

The breakthrough came when Toronto researchers used two NVIDIA gaming GPUs to train neural networks for ImageNet competition, demonstrating AI's potential to Wong and other groups simultaneously.

AI Revolution and American Competitiveness Concerns

Wong argues that AI fears are 'really out of control' in the West compared to other countries: 'The sentiment for AI in the United States is lower than most countries' due to job displacement messaging.

Radiologists exemplify Wong's point about AI augmentation versus replacement: 'AI has now completely revolutionized radiology... However, radiologists' demand has gone up' because faster, cheaper scans enable treating more patients.

Wong believes current college graduates have 'far, far greater' opportunities than his generation: 'The tools they have to work with is a billion times more capable' yet they remain busier than ever.

On geopolitical risks, Wong advocates for 'more balanced and nuanced set of policies, not all or nothing' while expressing confidence in leaders' wisdom to avoid conflict.

Personal Costs and Leadership Philosophy

Wong admits he would not start NVIDIA again knowing the full suffering required: 'All of the pain and suffering, and all the embarrassment, and humiliation... Would you start again? The answer, absolutely not.'

His coping mechanism involves deliberately forgetting: 'I spend all of my time, all of my life trying to forget yesterday' - 'What do they teach athletes? Forget the last point.'

Wong describes himself as a 'battlefield CEO': 'The perfect day is we are in trouble... you just create the worst possible condition... That's my vibe.'

Both children work at NVIDIA after independent careers: 'Spencer's 35, Madison's 34, and the company's 33 years old... They've been to all of mine' conferences despite Wong missing most of theirs.