The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant

Tae Kim’s The NVIDIA Way is one of the most insightful and timely books written about modern technology leadership. For me, as an entrepreneur and long-term investor based in Princeton, the book has been profoundly meaningful. It not only deepened my understanding of NVIDIA’s extraordinary journey, but also sparked new conversations among my business partners about the future of innovation, leadership, and long-term value creation. More than a corporate story, this book illuminates the remarkable rise of Jensen Huang—arguably the most successful tech entrepreneur of our time. Few leaders have impacted global technology, industry, and society as deeply as he has. Under his vision, NVIDIA evolved from a small graphics startup facing existential challenges to becoming the defining company of the AI century, shaping fields as diverse as robotics, healthcare, climate science, transportation, and supercomputing. What makes the book so powerful is how Tae Kim explains not just what NVIDIA achieved, but how. He captures Jensen Huang’s leadership philosophy—rooted in first-principles thinking, humility, endurance, and an almost spiritual devotion to engineering excellence. These are lessons that resonate deeply with entrepreneurs like myself who build and invest for the long run. The book has had a tremendous impact on my own work and thinking. It provided a framework for understanding how to build organizations that can survive adversity, reinvent themselves, and compound strengths over decades. My business partners and I have frequently discussed the themes in this book as we work to build companies grounded in purpose, innovation, and long-term competitive advantage. The clarity of Jensen Huang’s principles—patience, technical depth, truth-seeking, and cultural integrity—has reinforced our belief that mission-driven leadership is more important today than ever. For investors, the book offers invaluable insight into how enduring value is created in the age of AI. NVIDIA’s success is not a result of luck or timing—it is the direct outcome of long-term thinking, full-stack innovation, and a culture that refuses to compromise on excellence. In an era where innovation cycles are accelerating, understanding the philosophy behind companies like NVIDIA is essential for anyone seeking to identify the next great compounding businesses. For entrepreneurs, the book is a roadmap for building a company with soul. It shows that great companies are not built by chasing trends, but by solving real problems with courage, curiosity, and integrity. Jensen Huang’s story is a rare example of how technical vision, emotional resilience, and strategic precision can come together to create world-changing impact. Tae Kim has given us not only the definitive book on NVIDIA, but a timeless guide for leaders and investors navigating the most transformative period in modern history. It is required reading for: • Entrepreneurs aiming to build lasting companies • Investors seeking long-term compounding opportunities • Students and engineers inspired by technological breakthroughs • Anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the 21st century For me and my partners, The NVIDIA Way has become a foundational text—one that we will return to again and again as we pursue our mission in the age of AI and intelligent creation.

One should not stop at learning technical processes but always be open to how technical change impacts society. “The NVIDIA Way” (Norton, 2025) by Tae Kim explores NVIDIA and how they turned technological success into societal change. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, and the longest active serving technical CEO, plays a key part in that success. The book divides into a chronological approach: before 1993, 1993-2003, 2002-2013, and from 2013 to the present. This should be essential reading for anyone managing a startup, working on product issues, and desiring a better look at the marketplace. The chronological approach is unusual as it focuses on Jensen first and then moves to the technological change. The early NVIDIA processes had setbacks and potential fails, but it is the company's structure and culture moving them forward. I do not know if all the NVIDIA successes are paths for me, but it highlights multiple paths to success. One could skip directly to NVIDIA current successes but would lose how those decisions became the organic culture. Employees often describe NVIDIA as not a 24x7 approach but a 25x8 approach, never ceasing, never stopping, and eliminating opponents by sheer hard work. There is a quote from Jensen, “Don’t worry about the score, it’s how you play the game” that resonates strongly with me. As a martial arts coach, I always tell students to seek technical perfection, and the wins will arrive in time. In boarding school, ping pong, and his undergraduate studies, Jensen’s early years show this as he excels not only at the task but earns the money to support those achievements with multiple janitorial jobs Think about character strength and resilience needed to work as a janitor in the same location one attends school. This constant resilience enabled success as NVIDA launched in later years. The company's first success was the founders departing LSI Logic to focus on graphics cards for PCs and the gaming industry. When NVIDIA first launched, the goal was for the first card NV1, to do everything from graphics to audio to processing. The computer game DOOM proved this was impossible as even excelling at graphics, it fell behind audio standards. Succeeding from the early failures required purchasing testing equipment and speeding up software development so drivers were ready at the same time as the chip. This was drastically different than other chip manufacturing companies and more in tune with a modern DevOps approach. The end result was the RIVA 128 chip. Essential NVIDIA growth depended on the “ship the whole cow” concept. This meant that chips failing high-level testing were sold at a reduced price.. Many vendors gradually reduced selling prices, but NVIDIA always believed in their value, keeping prices high. Despite selling lower quality parts at lower cost, the parts were still market leaders. This applies years later in selling advanced GPUs when linking cheaper graphics cards could perform similar functions. An example of this appears in a meeting with Steve Jobs about laptop NVIDIA chips. Steve believed the chips were overpowered for the laptops but NVIDIA engineers explained simply lowering the clock speed made the chips perform, leading to their inclusion in all systems. NVIDIA’s market growth is best tied to the GPU market. This was when research scientists realized the same technical specifications creating success for graphics could be engineered to address extremely large matrix math, with up to millions of parameters. Matrix math is a key to current machine learning and AI algorithms, even if those were not the immediate answers at the time. The first major use was life sciences, measuring protein folding and biological interaction. One key disagreement with NVIDIA strategy happened whan a scientist, Ross Walker, first using the proprietary CUDA code, wanted to purchase only commercial GEFORCE graphics cards instead of the higher-end GPUS. Despite NVIDIA introducing technical controls, Ross continued his approach even with a later career at GlaxoSmithKline. NVIDIA continued to advocate always purchasing the highest quality and, consequently, expensive models. The success continued into the modern era as NVIDIA supplies top-end solutions, emphasizing engineering first over profit-taking incentives. Jensen emphasized several approaches to focus on technical success. Even during expansion, he introduced a flat organization with all employees, sending a top five concerns to the CEO weekly. One might see this from recent news about DOGE, requesting government employees to take a similar approach. Another emphasis was all employees had to respond to any email within two hours, again hitting the 25x8 structure. A third approach was all employees were accountable for all ideas with Jensen frequently calling out individuals to defend ideas in public meetings. I do not necessarily agree with public shaming, but Jensen followed it up with the concept that no one should fail alone, encouraging others to ask for help frequently. One area where I found fault with Kim’s writing was the book becomes very disjointed in later sections. Maintaining a chronological approach creates challenges as the company expands and more areas grow rapidly. The later section might have benefited more from a functional approach from 2018 to current, highlighting marketing, product, CUDA, GPUs, and other developments separately. The chronological approach fails as these items are difficult to follow in later chapters. Overall, “The NVIDIA Way” should be a must-read for tech professionals. The essential learning points are demonstrating resilience, leading innovation, and maintaining a consistent strategic vision. Along the way, the book demonstrates how companies like Google, Silicon Graphics, and many graphics companies failed by concentrating on profit rather than technology. Jensen shows up as a unique individual, and a key behind NVIDIA’s success. I don’t think the model can be duplicated but there are several good industry lessons. The book reads quickly and I recommend it for CPOs, CTOs, and CEOs looking to grow their knowledge.

This is a good summary of rise of Nvidia. Although a bit technical, it is a good book to know this successful company.

It's a good book and has to be looked at from different perspectives. In any event, a story is being told here at the pace of a thriller. If you are a layman with a curious mind, and wish to know which way your world is moving, then this maybe the book for you. Enjoy. If you are a budding entrepreneur, then this is certainly a book for you. Believe me, this will not guarantee your success in any manner, but will contribute to it. If your are 'intrapreneur', pick up this book. Motivation guaranteed. Learn. After the niceties, let me come to the part which put me off. The author is either infatuated with Jensen Huang or has a different motivation to sing the 'Jensen Hymns'. The tautological praises he heaps on practically every third page made me nauseous. It's for this reason that I knocked a point off. Don't get me wrong; Jensen deserves the praise but let's not elevate a human to the level of divinity.

Worth reading, a lot to learn over tech management and resilience and amazing Corporate culture that attracts the best in their class every time

I found that this was an instructive book for those who want to better understand some of the traits that have made Jensen Huang, one of the most innovative and forward thinking CEOs in the tech industry. The book also reminds one that success takes perserverance as well as an ability to double down on opportunity when others around you might see only risk.

I love reading about leaders in tech. This one made me go out and buy stocks in Nvidia

Muy bien escrito, con mucha información.