, a freelance reporter who specializes in the chips industry, about how Nvidia rode the A.I. revolution, became the hottest chipmaker in the world, and made the entire A.I. craze suddenly seem very real. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.Emily Peck: In 1993, Nvidia was just an idea that CEO Jensen Huang and a couple of his friends were mapping out inside a Denny’s—the stuff of Silicon Valley myth.
Generally speaking, when your CEO is very deep technically, those are the glory days of any company. When Bill Gates was running Microsoft, they were kicking ass; when Steve Jobs was running Apple, they were kicking ass. The great leaders who have really helped the industry, no engineer can snow them about, “Oh, it’s too complicated,” or “We can’t do it.” Jensen is very, very deep technically, and he reads all the scientific literature, he talks to the scientists directly.