As the head of the world's most valuable company, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang currently boasts a fortune of nearly $160 billion, ranking eighth on the global rich list. Despite his immense success, he has never been able to enjoy a leisurely long vacation, nor has he ever missed a single day of the company's daily operations.
In his latest podcast, Jensen Huang candidly admitted that fear, anxiety, and even the fear of the company going bankrupt have always accompanied him and driven him forward. He stated that he works seven days a week, even on holidays, and has been in a state of "anxiety" due to concerns about Nvidia's potential bankruptcy .
“You know the phrase ‘30 days away from bankruptcy,’ right? I’ve been using it for 33 years,” Huang said. “But that feeling has never changed. That sense of vulnerability, uncertainty, and insecurity—it’s always been there for me.”
Nvidia is now a leader in artificial intelligence. One of the undisputed leaders in the (AI) field. This company, which started as a graphics card manufacturer, has grown into a technology giant, and its chips, systems, and software support cloud data centers worldwide. It operates the vast majority of large-scale AI models. At the end of October this year, Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to surpass a market capitalization of $5 trillion.
Even so, Huang Renxun still couldn't shake the sense of crisis that "the company could collapse overnight." "It's really exhausting," he said, admitting that he was "constantly in a state of anxiety."
Huang Renxun revealed that to avoid his nightmare from coming true, he still maintains a seven-day work week, working tirelessly for the company every waking moment, and starting to check emails at 4 a.m. "Every single day, without exception, not even Thanksgiving or Christmas," he said.
Jensen Huang recalled Nvidia's near collapse in the mid-1990s . At the time, the company was a major supplier of video games to a well-known Japanese company. Sega, the company developing chips for its next-generation game console , discovered a flaw in its own original graphics technology.
At that time, the company was on the verge of running out of funds. Jensen Huang flew to Japan and frankly told Sega's CEO that the product could not meet the requirements and suggested that the deal be canceled. However, he also admitted that Nvidia urgently needed the final $5 million payment for this collaboration to keep operating. Ultimately, Sega converted this remaining payment into an investment, injecting crucial funds to save the struggling startup.
"Hardships are an inevitable part of the journey (in life/entrepreneurship)," Huang Renxun said.
Jensen Huang previously encouraged Stanford University students to "experience more setbacks and hardships." In his view, adversity is key to cultivating resilience, lowering expectations, and ultimately achieving success.
To this day, the fear of failure remains Huang's greatest driving force. .
“Compared to the desire for success, the fear of failure drives me forward more,” he said on the podcast. “What drives me is not greed or other thoughts, but the fear of failure.”
Jensen Huang also mentioned that he is not the only "workaholic" in his family. His two children, Madison and Spencer, joined Nvidia as interns in 2020 and 2022 respectively, and are also "working every day".
(Article source: CLS)
