by Tae Kim
First published 2024
Nvidia began in 1993 at a Denny's restaurant in East San Jose, where three founders launched what would become one of the world's most valuable companies. Tech writer Tae Kim traces the chip designer's transformation from a gaming-focused startup to the engine powering today's artificial intelligence boom. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred sources, including CEO Jensen Huang and his cofounders, Kim reveals how Nvidia survived early mistakes that destroy most startups. The company's flat organizational structure allowed employees at every level to shape strategy. Huang's fear of falling victim to the Innovator's Dilemma drove him to constantly reinvent corporate approaches. Most crucially, Nvidia anticipated the AI revolution before competitors and staked everything on technologies that had not yet emerged. Kim exposes the myths surrounding the company's founding and shows how Nvidia repeatedly outmaneuvered giants like Intel. The book captures Huang's distinctive management style and the culture that enabled the longest-serving CEO in a volatile industry to build a company that now dominates artificial intelligence hardware.
Genres: business, computers, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: fast-paced, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: corporate-history, underdog-story
Setting: East San Jose, Silicon Valley
Period: 1993
272 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company