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It's the classic shovels in a gold rush model. I just wonder what happened to the shovel makers after the gold rush petered out...

mertd 3y ago
Seller did great. They have a university named after them just a few miles off of Nvidia HQ.
- helsinkiandrew 3y ago
  If you don't know who (like I didn't) it was Leland Stanford.
- dreamcompiler 3y ago
  The university is named for the seller's late son, not himself.
  - sib 3y ago
    Since the son (Leland Stanford Jr) was named after the seller, I guess you could still say it was named after him...
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
The same thing that Nvidia did after graphics cards and then crypto mining became less profitable - diversified.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  Nvidia has really managed to capitalize very well on multiple "Compute that does nothing important" trends. From 3D games to crypto mining, now to AI. Jensen Huang seems to have a crystal ball that can predict what people will waste compute on in the next 5 years.
  - ydnaclementine 3y ago
    Is he really predicting, or are the areas where GPUs are becoming useful increasing in number?
  - idiotsecant 3y ago
    What exactly is 'something important' if those things don't meet your metric?
  - Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
    I think you really have cause-and-effect backwards. First off, 3D games existed before NVIDIA. NVIDIA wasn't even first to market for making dedicated 3D acceleration hardware. CUDA existed before Bitcoin and was used for physics and chemistry simulations when it first came out. > "Compute that does nothing important" Entertainment is important, so to just toss 3D games aside is asinine. I'll agree that crypto-mining is completely worthless. As far AI, certainly there's a lot of hype around it right now, and we're probably gonna see a lot of AI startups go belly-up in the next couple years, but it's definitely not a fad and isn't going away. Being highly dismissive doesn't make you cool or edgy, just so you know.
    - ryandrake 3y ago
      I mean, I'm a 3D gamer myself and I'm happy we have GPUs. Just being realistic about their importance. I am fully aware I'm burning kilowatts of energy so that the leaves in Red Dead Redemption 2 look beautiful.
  - anthomtb 3y ago
    Nvidia had the foresight to realize GPU's could be used for more than just graphics and put a lot of effort into CUDA. Beyond that, there was no crystal ball, rather a useful physical product and software tools to make it accessible beyond a highly specialized set of users (I am not saying CUDA or anything is that accessible, but it makes GPU's useful to more than just game devs).
dreamcompiler 3y ago
Have you ever worn Levis jeans? He did okay.
bcx 3y ago
Much of the sf area old money comes from folks selling tools into the gold rush, for example Folgers started serving coffee to miners, Levi’s selling jeans, Wells Fargo.

mertd 3y ago

Seller did great. They have a university named after them just a few miles off of Nvidia HQ.

helsinkiandrew 3y ago
If you don't know who (like I didn't) it was Leland Stanford.
dreamcompiler 3y ago
The university is named for the seller's late son, not himself.
- sib 3y ago
  Since the son (Leland Stanford Jr) was named after the seller, I guess you could still say it was named after him...

helsinkiandrew 3y ago

The same thing that Nvidia did after graphics cards and then crypto mining became less profitable - diversified.

ryandrake 3y ago
Nvidia has really managed to capitalize very well on multiple "Compute that does nothing important" trends. From 3D games to crypto mining, now to AI. Jensen Huang seems to have a crystal ball that can predict what people will waste compute on in the next 5 years.
- ydnaclementine 3y ago
  Is he really predicting, or are the areas where GPUs are becoming useful increasing in number?
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  What exactly is 'something important' if those things don't meet your metric?
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  I think you really have cause-and-effect backwards. First off, 3D games existed before NVIDIA. NVIDIA wasn't even first to market for making dedicated 3D acceleration hardware. CUDA existed before Bitcoin and was used for physics and chemistry simulations when it first came out. > "Compute that does nothing important" Entertainment is important, so to just toss 3D games aside is asinine. I'll agree that crypto-mining is completely worthless. As far AI, certainly there's a lot of hype around it right now, and we're probably gonna see a lot of AI startups go belly-up in the next couple years, but it's definitely not a fad and isn't going away. Being highly dismissive doesn't make you cool or edgy, just so you know.
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    I mean, I'm a 3D gamer myself and I'm happy we have GPUs. Just being realistic about their importance. I am fully aware I'm burning kilowatts of energy so that the leaves in Red Dead Redemption 2 look beautiful.
- anthomtb 3y ago
  Nvidia had the foresight to realize GPU's could be used for more than just graphics and put a lot of effort into CUDA. Beyond that, there was no crystal ball, rather a useful physical product and software tools to make it accessible beyond a highly specialized set of users (I am not saying CUDA or anything is that accessible, but it makes GPU's useful to more than just game devs).

dreamcompiler 3y ago

Have you ever worn Levis jeans? He did okay.

bcx 3y ago

Much of the sf area old money comes from folks selling tools into the gold rush, for example Folgers started serving coffee to miners, Levi’s selling jeans, Wells Fargo.