NVIDIA’s story is that of a survivor when all its competitors disappeared or were bought

In 1998 NVIDIA was on the verge of go bankrupt. The rivalry that graphics chip manufacturers sustained during the 90s of the last century and the first decade of the current one killed many of them. In fact, as Tae Kim explains to us in the highly recommended essay book ‘The NVIDIA Way’only the company led by Jensen Huang survived in a saturated industry that still suffered from obvious immaturity.

During the second half of the 1990s, between 80 and 100 companies competed in the PC graphics market, as Kim confirms in his work. Some of them were well known to users, such as Matrox, 3dfx Interactive, S3 Graphics, ATI Technologies, Hercules, Cirrus Logic, Intel, Trident, Number Nine Visual Technology or Rendition, while others were fighting to make their way in a market whose size It was at that time much smaller than today.

Tae Kim argues that only NVIDIA has survived for one reason: it is the only company of all those I have mentioned so far in this article that remains as it was at that time. Most of them no longer exist, and those that remain have either been bought by other companies, such as ATI Technologies, or have had an unstable presence in the PC graphics hardware market and have made a living from other businesses, such as Intel.

Jensen Huang is where he is thanks to his perseverance and intuition

In his book Tae Kim assures that NVIDIA has overcome the critical moments it has faced thanks to Jensen Huang. Many of the decisions this executive has made during his career have been guided by ‘The innovators’ dilemma’one of his favorite books. Its author, American university professor Clayton M. Christensen, maintains that not dedicating the resources necessary for innovation It leaves the way free to do so for other companies that can afford to risk and bet everything on innovation with the purpose of consolidating themselves in the market.

Christensen’s teachings have inspired Jensen Huang and helped him define NVIDIA’s business strategy, but, according to Kim, the company is still competing today thanks to two qualities of Huang: his perseverance and his intuition. In 1998, TSMC, which already then manufactured NVIDIA chipsran into a production problem. The latter company was running out of money, but Jensen Huang reacted and convinced three of the PC graphics card manufacturers he worked with.

“Our technology is good. We will give you a 10% discount on the IPO when we go public. You just have to give us some money now,” Huang promised them. And it worked. His conviction and firm belief in the potential of his products got NVIDIA out of the quagmire, but the recipe for his success has other ingredients that we cannot ignore: his intuition and his good eye when it comes to recruiting talent. Huang has always been attentive to both talent coming from universities and strengthening his competitors.

The signing of Dwight Diercks proves it. Jensen Huang followed Scott Sellers closely before he co-founded 3dfx Interactive. When the latter company went bankrupt in 2000 and was bought by NVIDIA, Huang questioned Sellers: “Which engineers are really good among all those who have been part of your team? Who are the stars?“Sellers did not hesitate to praise Dwight Diercks. And he ended up at NVIDIA. Jensen Huang is the alma mater of his company, but it is clear that he is fully aware of how essential the people he works with are.

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant (English Edition)

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Image | NVIDIA

Bibliography | ‘The NVIDIA Way’by Tae Kim

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