By 2012, NVIDIA was on a decade-long road to nowhere. Or so most rational observers of the company thought. CEO Jensen Huang was plowing all the cash from the company’s gaming business into building a highly speculative platform with few clear use cases and no obviously large market opportunity. And then... a miracle happened. A miracle that led not only to Nvidia becoming the 8th largest market cap company in the world, but also nearly every internet and technology innovation that’s happened in the decade since. Machines learned how to learn. And they learned it... on Nvidia. PSA: We’re doing an ARENA SHOW!! May 4th, 2022 in Seattle (Star Wars day). All proceeds go to charity. We’d love to see you there! https://events.pitchbook.com/acquired If you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!): https://pod.link/acquiredlp Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America! https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Links: Ben Thompson’s great Stratechery interview with Jensen: https://stratechery.com/2022/an-interview-with-nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-about-manufacturing-intelligence/ Linus Tech Tips tests an Nvidia A100: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBAxiQi2nPc Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRPps0c_MoZq7TAKt7gpkHlAhQH0AMcT2MkpkemyP2k/edit Carve Outs: The Expanse short story collection, Memory's Legion: https://www.amazon.com/Memorys-Legion-Complete-Expanse-Collection-ebook/dp/B096RSDCVK Sony RX100 point-and-shoot camera: https://electronics.sony.com/imaging/compact-cameras/all-compact-cameras/p/dscrx100m7-b ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.