Hype Or History? Nvidia And The “Big Bang” of AI
These days, few topics are as hotly debated as the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its likely effects. Its tendrils reach into countless industries and ways of life, with tech bros and regular Joes alike proclaiming it the future and the downfall of mankind in equal measure. Did you know, though, that one company claims to be responsible for the “Big Bang” in AI? After all, it reckons that it created the technological advance upon which this entire industry is built. Is this claim accurate? And is AI truly the future, or just another tech-related flash in the pan?
Jensen Huang
In tech circles, Jensen Huang is a legend. The Taiwanese-born, leather jacket-wearing AI pioneer is worth a truly staggering $70 billion. He grew up in Oregon and studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University.
After graduation, he began plying his trade in Silicon Valley as a microchip designer, before forming his own company, Nvidia, in 1993. Inspired by invidia —the Latin word for “envy” —it turned out to be a very apt moniker: three decades later, Nvidia would be the envy of almost every other tech firm in the world.
The “Big Bang” of AI
In a 2020 Barron’s magazine podcast, Huang made the claim which sent ripples through the tech industry. While talking about his company’s revolutionary graphics processing unit (GPU) microchips, he stated his position.
He argued, “The combination of this algorithm, and this processor that we were making, sped up that algorithm from months to days, [and] made it possible for this approach to even be viable. We kind of created the Big Bang of artificial intelligence.”
Outside of tech circles, who has even heard of Nvidia?
To the layman, this mightn’t make much sense, and it sounds like an outlandish claim, to boot. After all, who has even heard of Nvidia anyway? In truth, though, the general public’s lack of knowledge about Nvidia is to be expected.
You see, the company doesn’t make flashy tech items we use every day, like Apple with its iPhones or Microsoft with the Xbox gaming system. Instead, Nvidia’s GPU chips can be found inside countless computer products made today by a host of companies, powering their main functions.
It’s one of the four biggest corporations in the world
In reality, the omnipresence of Nvidia’s GPUs — and their vital importance to the alarmingly swift development of AI — have led to the company’s value skyrocketing in recent years. In 2019 Nvidia was worth around $100 billion, and for context in 2023 the entire AI market was valued at$200 billion worldwide.
And as of March 2024 Nvidia has hit the stratosphere: it is now worth more than $2 trillion. It’s a status only three other companies can claim: the aforementioned Apple and Microsoft, as well as oil company Saudi Aramco.