Business Wars How Nvidia Owned A.I. | Once in a Lifetime | 2
Dec 24, 2025
Nvidia's bold move to pivot its gaming chips into AI powerhouses faced skepticism from investors and scientists alike. Universities became key allies, promoting CUDA as academia embraced its potential. The turning point came with Stanford's groundbreaking cat experiment, showcasing GPUs' capabilities. Despite challenges, Nvidia's strategic partnerships and smart acquisitions fortified its position. The launch of ChatGPT sparked an AI gold rush, skyrocketing demand for Nvidia's technology and reshaping its future in the digital landscape.
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CEO's Lunchtime Defense
- Jensen Huang defends CUDA to skeptical analysts at an outdoor NVIDIA lunch, insisting GPUs will usher in a new era of computing.
- He frames investing now as delivering for shareholders tomorrow while balancing today's results.
Teach To Create Demand
- NVIDIA seeded CUDA adoption by paying universities to teach parallel programming and donating hardware.
- This created durable credibility as professors and students became unpaid brand ambassadors.
Cat Recognition Proof Point
- NVIDIA helped Stanford replace 2,000 CPUs with GPUs to train neural nets, cutting required hardware dramatically.
- The cat-recognition breakthrough showed GPUs could make AI training feasible and fast.