Will Nvidia’s huge bet on artificial-intelligence chips pay off?
The unassuming chipmaking giant was early to the AI revolution—and remains ahead of rivals
“WE’RE ALWAYS 30 days away from going out of business,” is a mantra of Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder of Nvidia. That may be a little hyperbolic coming from the boss of a company whose market value has increased from $31bn to $505bn in five years and which has eclipsed Intel, once the world’s mightiest chipmaker, by selling high-performance semiconductors for gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). But only a little. As Mr Huang observes, Nvidia is surrounded by “giant companies pursuing the same giant opportunity”. To borrow a phrase from Intel’s co-founder, Andy Grove, in this fast-moving market “only the paranoid survive”.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Veni, Nvidia, Vici”
From the August 7th 2021 edition
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