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The Nvidia Way
- DEEP-MELTDOWN 2y ago[dead]
- swimwiththebeat 2y agoI just finished this book. I thought it was a great read, capturing most of the problems (with product, sales, marketing, competition) Nvidia faced in its life and how exactly the team solved them each and every time. It also goes into how the management, org structure, and culture have empowered its engineers to find creative solutions to staying alive in the brutal graphic chips industry and continuously discover and exploit new market opportunities. I learned a lot about how important not just superior technology, but better operations, marketing, sales, and culture are all critical to a successful business. The only con of this book is that it skips over some parts of nvidia’s history like the short-lived crypto boom, failed acquisition of ARM, etc. It’s still just a minor flaw in an otherwise great book though.
- firstadopter 2y agoThanks for the kind words swimwiththebeat. I really appreciate it. I didn't get to the ARM acquisition failure and crypto boom given time constraints. There is so much to cover in Nvidia's three decade history, so I had to pick and choose.
- als0 2y agoThe whole ARM acquisition attempt really smelt of subtle stock market games, because the alleged benefits of such a deal made no sense. With the Arm CEO being ex Nvidia I'm sure he was in on it. Looking forward to someone writing up an account of what really happened.
- klelatti 2y agoI think that the blocking of the deal by competition authorities shows the potential benefits of the deal (for Nvidia) in having control of Arm, in addition to making Arm-based SoCs, were real. Also, Rene Haas (ex Nvidia) became CEO of Arm after the deal fell through. Simon Segars was CEO when the deal was announced.
- als0 2y ago> I think that the blocking of the deal by competition authorities shows the potential benefits of the deal (for Nvidia) in having control of Arm, in addition to making Arm-based SoCs, were real. China was concerned about more US influence. The other regions were concerned about stifling of innovation. In reality, a successful acquisition would have meant that most customers would have started transitioning away from ARM and sooner to available RISC-V or Cadence/Synopsis solutions. > Also, Rene Haas (ex Nvidia) became CEO of Arm after the deal fell through. Simon Segars was CEO when the deal was announced. Rene Haas was EVP of the whole IP business (CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, etc) before becoming CEO. His influence with the CEO can't be understated. I posit that this was an enormous gamble to boost valuations of both NVIDIA and ARM and that they knew from the beginning that the deal would not go through. Anyone who understands the ARM business model could have told you that.
- klelatti 2y ago> I posit that this was an enormous gamble to boost valuations of both NVIDIA and ARM and that they knew from the beginning that the deal would not go through. You posit it without saying why the valuations would go up given that you think they - and everyone else given what you say - thought the deal wouldn’t complete.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y agoYeah, it was a good book. I got an extremely heavy dose of nostalgia from its description of the late-90s Voodoo2/Riva128 era. It was such a fast-moving era, too. Check this out: https://www.anandtech.com/show/178/2 https://www.anandtech.com/show/178/2 A card released in September 1997 is described as "an aging and slowly dying chipset." I suppose it parallels AI today, where a model released a year ago is already obsolete on the high end...
- firstadopter 2y agoNostalgia for the 1990s is real. I loved that era. PC gaming was awesome. I bought tons of 3D graphics cards from Rendition Verite, 3dfx Voodoo and obviously Nvidia. Having John Carmack tweet about my book nearly made me faint (surreal!). I adored his Doom and Quake games so much.
- tjoff 2y agoRelevant context: In July of 1998.
- zf00002 2y agoI recall being on roughly a 6 month upgrade cycle for my pc back then. Alternating between cpu/mobo/mem and gpu.
- creshal 2y agoOne of the reasons why Nvidia managed to get ahead was that they managed to get a new chip out every 6 months without fail, so there was always a new Nvidia card to upgrade to.
- pipes 2y agoDoes it mention the investment from sega that saved Nvidia from going out of business. I think the Nvidia chips became part of some sega arcade boards, might be wrong about that.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y agoThat's at the beginning of the book, and it was apparently something of a debacle. The NV2 chip that was supposed to go into Sega's next-gen console never made it, but a $5M investment from Sega did keep Nvidia afloat until the Riva128 launched.
- pipes 2y agoDespite buying a Dreamcast on launch day I only heard about this story in the last week or so ago in a YouTube comment with Jensen Huang congratulating sega on the new virtua fighter. Unfortunately he keeps calling it virtual fighter: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9NCp1BdWJG0&pp=ygUcSmVuc2VuIEh1YW5nIHZpcnR1YWwgZmlnaHRlcg%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9NCp1BdWJG0&pp=ygUcSmVuc2VuIEh...
- Jgrubb 2y agoI'll go one further - operations, marketing, sales, and culture _are_ what makes a successful business. Superior technology is a bonus on top of that. Superior technology in a company that hasn't figured out how to operate, or market and sell may as well not even exist.
- jasdi 2y agoYou missed Finance. There is lot of financial engineering going on to keep orgs alive and quickly adapt to ever changing needs. Dealing with cross border diff in taxes, subsidies, tariffs, regs, forex, interest rates, real estate/rent, labor costs and their constant changes is no joke. Each of these specializations (just like tech) are evolving at their own rates and are all equally capable of outpacing each other depending on the environment.
- nxobject 2y agoAnd, god forbid, meta-issues like long-term cashflow planning when you're making big changes to your internal organizations and processes, which lets you worry less about funding. And/but investing in complex thinking about operations is part of the book's thesis.
- Jgrubb 2y agoI didn't. In my worldview, I put Finance as the majority stakeholder in "operating" the company even though there are plenty of teams and roles with somethingOps in their titles that might disagree. The tech part of tech companies is the easy part in my opinion. Step out into these other domains where you have to deal with _people_ and a company's skill or lack thereof gets really obvious really quick.
- ssivark 2y agoYou mean, like… Intel these past few years?
- Symmetry 2y agoI'm very glad I read the book, but it did lean a little towards the hagiographic side. From the outside it looks like the same high-pressure culture that drives so much innovation at Nvidia also drove their conflict with Apple.
- cryptocali2018 2y ago+1 with your assessment of trending towards a hagiography. The author is not Isaacson. I wish he had spent more time with the people that probably don’t have the best view of Huang’s methods, and approach to running the company. Showing the other side in a more vivid way so the reader can make their own conclusion would strengthen the book and provide a holistic, fuller profile of Huang and Nvidia. Probably the price for access, and still better than nothing… Nvidia appears to be another pressure-cooker, dog-eat-dog SV company, that outlasted competitors thanks to shrewd bets and urgent execution. Clearly, a great accomplishment, but we’ve seen other companies succeed with similar culture… this isn’t a “new way”… a relentless, obsessive, ruthless technical founder with good business sense (Huang like Gates were able to secure partnerships/licenses of needed technology early on.. same mold as Musk, Zuck) who understands the technology and business implications in detail is a movie we’ve seen before..
- firstadopter 2y agoI sigh a little whenever anyone mentions Isaacson. My book had a different goal. I wanted to write a serious, substantive business history of Nvidia and explore the reasons for its success. Walt has a different style and focus, which wasn't what I aimed to do.
- klelatti 2y agoIn addition to Tae Kim's interview with Asianometry's Jon Y [1] mentioned in the post, readers might also enjoy his more recent interview on The Riff podcast [2]. Both are terrific. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vjGIZOSjLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vjGIZOSjLE [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qub-IS2gY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qub-IS2gY
- jimmySixDOF 2y agoAlso a deep dive 3 part series coverage by the Aquired podcast team references the book (if I remember correctly) : https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/nvidia-the-gpu-company-1993-2006 https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/nvidia-the-gpu-company-1993...
- firstadopter 2y agoThe book was written after Acquired podcasts.
- _7acn 2y agoI haven’t read this book, but doesn’t the title sound a bit like he’s taking credit for the company’s success? NVIDIA was a good company from the very beginning. I don’t know where their CEO was back then, maybe he was still wetting his pants.
- klelatti 2y agoJensen Huang was their first CEO!
- _7acn 2y agoHaha that really changes things a bit. I’m sorry. I’ve been using their cards since the Riva TNT and I didn’t know the CEO had never changed
- klelatti 2y agoI guess it just shows that Jensen has had a (perhaps admirably) low profile until recently.
- Tuna-Fish 2y agoOh, he's always been flamboyant. It's just that when the company was just one gpu maker in a crowed, tiny and not very profitable market, no-one paid much attention. Now they are making the shovels and pickaxes for the current gold rush, and correspondingly are competing for the spot of the largest company in the world, a lot more people are paying attention to his antics.
- klelatti 2y agoFair comment. I'm in the middle of reading the Isaacson Musk bio so maybe the contrast between the two made me think of Jensen as shy and retiring.
- 2y ago
- whiplash451 2y agoWhile the book is certainly a great read, I can't help but think that many people will try to replicate NVIDIA's culture (a la founder mode) when all they will do is replicate the effects/correlations and not the root causes. NVDA's success goes probably extremely deep into Jensen's character, the leadership team he built and the industrial context of the time. It is unclear to me how much of it is really useful in the foresight.
- firstadopter 2y agoI agree with this. You have to do the whole culture - not just a part of it. One prominent CEO (I won't name) started posting on social media about the book, the parts of being blunt and direct in feedback, and I bristled. He certainly doesn't understand the entire culture of treating employees like family in times of health crisis.
- bell-cot 2y ago> It is unclear to me how much of it is really useful in the foresight. While the specifics are of limited use, they do point to very useful generalities. Leader character. Leadership team. Deep understanding of the technology and industry. Long-term technological leadership. And avoiding Wall Street's quick-buck predators - and their twisted mindsets - as much as possible.
- firstadopter 2y agoThe deep understanding of technology is so important. So many CEOs are empty MBA suits who are BS artists and don't know anything. I wish I could shout this to the rooftops even though I do cover it in the book. The importance of technical competence and avoiding finance/MBA/consulting executive CEOs.
- klelatti 2y agoThat's a good list. I'd also add a willingness to take risks, which was particularly evident in the early years with RIVA 128 but also arguably CUDA was a risk and one that didn't pay off until relatively recently.
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- rootsudo 2y agoIs this the same Tae Kim that wrote how to learn Japanese? https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/ https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/
- firstadopter 2y agoNO. I'm the real Tae Kim.
- gyomu 2y agoNo. One is a technology writer for Barron's based in New York: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firstadopter https://www.linkedin.com/in/firstadopter https://x.com/firstadopter https://x.com/firstadopter The other is a software engineer based in Japan: https://x.com/kimchi314 https://x.com/kimchi314
- dagmx 2y agoAlso not to be confused by another Tae Kim, who is the VP of Omniverse Engineering at NVIDIA. https://www.linkedin.com/in/taeyongkim https://www.linkedin.com/in/taeyongkim
- JonChesterfield 2y agoCan anyone from team green comment on the accuracy of this account? I'm interested in how nvidia has evolved and mistrusting of the conflict of interest between accuracy and readability.
- firstadopter 2y agoI interviewed over 100 people directly including Jensen, the two other cofounders, the two original VC investors and dozens of current/former employees. Nvidia cooperated with the book and facilitated interviews.
- jerrygenser 2y agoThe article says Nvidia stock price was $4 in 2019... However I recall it being higher. I wonder if this number is after multiple stock splits (1:4 and 1:10 since then) looking back?
- xnx 2y agoHour long asianometry interview with the author that I enjoyed: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vjGIZOSjLE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vjGIZOSjLE Intel and AMD's recent missteps combined with that interview make me think that Nvidia will be in the lead for a long time.
- firstadopter 2y agoThe Asianometry interview was so much fun. It makes a huge difference when the host and interviewer reads the book and knows background technology/material.
- netfortius 2y agoThis book is a fairly decent complement to the Chip War (by Chris Miller).
- firstadopter 2y agoChris gave me an amazing book recommendation and blurb. I'm humbled and grateful. He was the first external validation of the book.
- senko 2y agoIs there a book covering TSMC in a similar way? (I know about Chip War but hesitant to spend time with it as I'm really not interested in politics of it all).
- ProllyInfamous 2y agoSemi-unrelated: Best book on Xerox/PARC is Dealers of Lightning [0]. [0] amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887309895/
- tester756 2y ago>(I know about Chip War but hesitant to spend time with it as I'm really not interested in politics of it all). Ehh, I wouldn't call it "politics-heavy"
- infocollector 2y agoA different perspective from the outside: Nvidia's journey features three pivotal milestones that shaped its success: - First, the 2006 acquisition of ATI by AMD solidified Nvidia's position as a dominant player in the industry. - Second, Geoffrey Hinton's groundbreaking work on deep learning over 25 years laid the foundation for AI advancements that aligned perfectly with Nvidia's GPU capabilities. - Third, Nvidia's recognition of its leadership in AI has propelled it to the forefront of the technology revolution.
- softwaredoug 2y agoAs a consultant in the search space I always heard people ask “how can we be like Google”. It always felt wrongheaded of course. Essentially assuming cargo cultish practices of successful companies will lead to success. So I think these stories are interesting but I take them with massive grains of salt. There’s randomness and luck. Theres the mix of personalities, and processes that fit this specific culture. There’s just timing. Success can be just as idiosyncratic as it is about drive or specific practices. And it’s hard to tease out WHICH practices actually contributed to success, and what might be holding this company back. So I read these more for inspiration and entertainment. Not as a “X worked for Nvidia, so I should 100% do that” perspective.
- slowmovintarget 2y agoOne of the major contributing factors to success was multiple overlapping design teams and outsourced chip fabs. That allowed Nvidia to deliver a cycle time of six months instead of the 18 month cycles of their competition. While one team was delivering, another would be designing. It allowed Nvidia to lap the competition over and over again. There was a chapter on this in Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Rumelt that was pretty good.