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The CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, urged Caltech graduates to passionately pursue their interests with resilience and to see challenges as opportunities.
“I urge you to have faith in something. Something unconventional, something yet unexplored. But let it be informed and reasoned, and commit yourself to realizing it,” he stated. “You might discover your GPU. You might discover your CUDA. You might discover your generative AI. You might discover your NVIDIA.”
Switching from his iconic leather jacket to black and yellow academic robes, Huang spoke to the almost 600 graduates at their ceremony in Pasadena, California, starting with the narrative of the computing industry’s prolonged journey to reach this critical juncture of AI revolution.
“Computers are currently the most essential tool of knowledge, forming the bedrock of every industry and every scientific field,” Huang remarked. “As you step into the industry, it’s imperative to stay abreast of the developments.”
He recounted how over a decade ago, NVIDIA, a relatively small company at the time, placed a bet on deep learning, investing billions and years of engineering effort to revolutionize every layer of computing.
“The scalability of deep learning was unknown to us, and had we not constructed it, we would never have known,” Huang mentioned. Drawing a parallel to the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams—if you build it, he will come— he said, “Our philosophy is: If we don’t build it, they can’t come.”
Looking forward, Huang highlighted that the upcoming frontier of AI is in robotics, a sector where NVIDIA’s journey was marked by a sequence of obstacles.
He reminisced about a time in NVIDIA’s history when each year they introduced new products that “garnered tremendous success, stirred up immense excitement. Yet, just one year later, we were ousted from those markets.”
These hindrances prompted NVIDIA to explore uncharted territories—what Huang termed as “zero-billion-dollar markets.”
“With nowhere else to go, we made a decision to establish something in a domain devoid of customers,” Huang explained. “Because where there are no customers, there are also no competitors.”
The domain of robotics emerged as that fresh market. As Huang revealed, NVIDIA developed the initial robotics computer, processing a deep learning algorithm. A decade later, that strategic shift has enabled the company to pioneer the next AI epoch.
“One setback after another, we shrugged them off and maneuvered towards the next opening. Each time, we acquire skills and fortify our resolve,” Huang articulated. “Nowadays, no setbacks come our way that don’t appear as opportunities.”
Huang underlined the significance of tenacity and adaptability as strengths that bolster character.
“The world might treat you unfairly and deal you a difficult hand. Quickly shrug it off,” he advised, with a lighthearted allusion to one of Taylor Swift’s biggest hits. “There’s another door out there—or create one.”
Concluding his address, Huang shared an anecdote from his trip to Japan, where he observed a gardener meticulously tending to Kyoto’s renowned moss garden. He realized that when someone is devoted to their craft and prioritizes their life’s work, they always find ample time.
“Focus on the essence of your life,” he urged, “and you will have an abundance of time for the essential things.”
Main image credit: Caltech.
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