[Introduction to New Wisdom]In the past year, Nvidia's market value exceeded US$2 trillion, becoming an AI giant in the 21st century. In Lao Huang’s latest interview, he showed us what the coming industrial revolution will look like.
There are only four companies in the world that have entered the $2 trillion club – Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Nvidia.
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Over the past year, California-based computer chip maker Nvidia's market value has soared from $1 trillion to $2 trillion.
This is due to the AI craze set off by large models, which has sharply amplified the world's demand for computing power.
From the Grace architecture to the new Blackwell, NVIDIA's innovations have brought breakthrough progress to generative AI and accelerated computing.
So how did a company founded in 1993 to improve video game graphics become a leader in AI in the 21st century?
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American “60 Minutes” reporter Bill Whitaker went to the NVIDIA headquarters in Silicon Valley and started a conversation with 61-year-old Jensen Huang.
This is a new industrial revolution
At this year's GTC conference, Huang's keynote speech was packed with seats and the audience was so enthusiastic that some people even called it “Huang's exclusive concert.”
It was on this stage that NVIDIA's next-generation revolutionary architecture, Blackwell, was born.
“How do you feel when you step onto the stage and see everything in front of you?”
Huang said, “When I walked onto the stage and saw the enthusiasm of all the audience, I almost held my breath. It was the most nervous moment in my life, and I still feel scared when I think about it.”
In fact, there was no sense of nervousness at all in his performance on stage.
Wearing the standard large leather jacket, at the end of the speech, Huang shared the stage with NVIDIA's AI-driven robot and shared his vision for the future of AI:
“This is a new industrial revolution”!
This scene reminds many people of the first time Steve Jobs released iPhonethat epoch-making moment.
“Blackwell GPU is currently the fastest chip in the world. Google is actively preparing for the arrival of Blackwell. In fact, the entire industry is preparing for this moment.”
During the interview, Huang said, “It can perform tens of trillions of calculations per second, which is incredible.”
How crazy is Blackwell GPU performance?
When asked whether the current performance of Blackwell GPU surprised him, Huang said: “We hope it can bring us unexpected surprises. This is our goal.”
“In areas such as drug discovery and designing lighter and stronger materials, we need the help of AI to explore the depths of the universe that humans cannot reach.”
Lao Huang took Robot to visit the GTC Convention and Exhibition Center, showing the possibilities that the development of AI in recent years will bring.
The following demonstration is an AI digital twin earth. Once you master the weather calculation method, you can predict the weather with an efficiency that is 3,000 times faster than a supercomputer and consumes 1,000 times less energy.
NVIDIA AI Revolution Ignites the World
However, NVIDIA's AI revolution is much more than what's on display in the showroom.
Seyhan Demirdag, CEO of the startup Cuebric, demonstrated how to use his own AI tools to generate “a blue metallic spaceship.”
This AI application is powered by NVIDIA GPUs.
It can instantly transform simple text prompts into virtual movie scenes at a fraction of the cost of real scenes.
Hollywood even came to Cuebric to discuss cooperation.
At the AI biotechnology company Generate:Biomedicines, Dr. Alex Snyder, director of the R&D department, is using Nvidia’s AI to develop protein-based drugs.
Currently, his team is working on using AI models to design proteins that do not exist in nature to fight diseases such as cancer and asthma.
The robot Figure 01 launched by the humanoid robot startup Figure is also driven by NVIDIA GPU.
CEO Brett Adcock said it took the team less than a year to get the robot to learn to walk.
He also said, “Without Nvidia's technology, it is difficult to determine whether the company can achieve this achievement.”
Reporter Bill Whitaker was amazed that Figure 01 could not only walk, but also had the ability to reason.
Currently, Figure 01 has begun testing in BMW workshops.
Brett Adcock said, “I think we have the opportunity to put billions of robots around the world in the next few decades. I believe that over time, AI and robots will increasingly take on the jobs that humans do now, and Do better.”
Luck over foresight
NVIDIA was born in a Denny's restaurant in San Jose, just a short distance from NVIDIA's headquarters.
Thirty-one years ago, NVIDIA was just an idea.
Looking back now, Huang said, “It's incredible.”
At the age of 15, he started working as a dishwasher at Denny's restaurant.
At the age of 30, he was already a married electrical engineer with two children. Together with two friends and NVIDIA co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, he conceived a new way of processing video game graphics. .
Huang said, “We were sitting at Denny's and decided to start a company together. To be honest, I didn't know what to do at the time, and neither did they.”
At that time, their big idea was to use a new type of graphics chip to accelerate the processing power of computers.
But their first attempt failed in 1996, putting the company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Huang continued, “It was with the help of Chris and Curtis that our engineering team found the right direction. Ultimately, we created a groundbreaking GPU chip.”
“This completely changed the face of computer graphics and saved the company.”
Just eight years later, Nvidia earned a spot on the S&P 500 Index.
After that, Lao Huang began to work on developing the software and hardware of a revolutionary, GPU-driven supercomputer. This was not only a breakthrough in the field of gaming, but also led the advancement of the entire industry.
Bill Whitaker asks, “Is it luck or foresight?”
Lao Huang said, “This is luck based on foresight. We invented this technology, and just after that, some deep learning researchers discovered this architecture, because GPUs are very suitable for training AI needs.”
That is, in 2016, Huang personally delivered Nvidia's first AI supercomputer to OpenAI. The startup later used the supercomputer to develop the underlying technology of ChatGPT.
There is no magic, just 61 years of persistence
Today, Huang Renxun has long become a celebrity in Silicon Valley.
He himself said, “I am an ordinary dishwasher and waiter, but I can achieve what I am today. There is no magic, I just persist in working hard every day for 61 years.”
Bill Whitaker went on to ask, “NVIDIA employees describe Mr. Huang as demanding, a perfectionist, and difficult to work with. Does this sound right?”
Huang said, “That's absolutely right, that's right. That's how it should be. If you want to make extraordinary achievements, the process will never be easy.”
Finally, in Bill Whitaker's closing, ask Lao Huang what will we face in the future?
Lao Huang said that both wonder and worry coexist.
But Lao Huang foresees that the future of AI will be full of progress and prosperity, rather than a future where machines dominate us.
References:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-nvida-ceo-jensen-huang-company-powering-ai-today-60-minutes-transcript/?intcid=CNR-01-0623