[Bread-Baking Typewriter] Why Do Employees Stay for 30 Years at a Company Where the CEO Says "Return All Your Salary and Leave"?

New Release: "Nvidia Jensen Huang, The Thinking Machine"
The First Official Biography of a Dedicated Chip Enthusiast
Struggles to Find a Use for "Parallel Computing"
Rises as an AI Industry Leader After Encountering "Neural Networks"
AI as a Thinking Machine... Emphasizing Pragmatic Thinking
Famed for Stern Employee Criticism Known as "Huang's Rage"
"Technological Advancement First" Drives Long-Term Employee Retention

Here is a story that would shock the so-called "Daechi-dong moms," known for their passion for education. A ten-year-old child begins studying abroad, far from home and separated from his parents. Due to a mistake by his uncle, who was supposed to find him a school, the child ends up not at a prestigious boarding school, but at a "juvenile reform school" filled with troubled youths. Every student smoked, and he was the only one at school without a pocketknife. His dorm roommate, seven years older, shows him a stab wound from a recent fight. Nevertheless, the boy grows up resilient, cleaning school bathrooms and working part-time in the cafeteria. He consistently maintains top grades, and when the time comes to choose a university, he opts for a nearby college simply because it is close to home, rather than a prestigious institution. In Korea, this might have caused an uproar. The boy’s name is Jensen Huang. This is the story of the teenage years of the future founder and CEO of Nvidia, who would later usher in the era of AI.

"Nvidia Jensen Huang: The Thinking Machine," written by investigative journalist Stephen Witt for The New Yorker, is a must-read for anyone interested in artificial intelligence (AI) and Nvidia. The book chronicles Jensen Huang’s journey from his childhood, through his experiences as a chip design engineer and Silicon Valley venture founder, including both his challenges and successes, to his rise as an "icon of the AI era," ranking 11th in global wealth as of 2024. The author was commissioned by Jensen Huang to write his biography and conducted in-depth interviews over three years with Huang and more than 300 key figures at Nvidia.

According to the author, the secrets to Jensen Huang’s success are his exceptional focus, clear sense of purpose, and bold execution. Nvidia’s core technology, "parallel computing," is also a product of these qualities. Parallel computing was first implemented in the late 1990s as a technology to enhance game graphics performance. By making subtle changes to processor architecture and operating environments, it enables multiple computational problems to be solved simultaneously. Although this technology offered outstanding performance, it failed to find a suitable application for years and remained overlooked. Investors were indifferent, and the stock price hit rock bottom. Despite this, Jensen Huang continued to believe in the potential of parallel computing and steadily refined the technology.

This neglected technology reached a turning point when it intersected with another field that even scientists had long dismissed. "Neural networks," which had not been recognized as mainstream in AI research for nearly 30 years, demonstrated astonishing training speeds using just two Nvidia graphics cards. The author notes, "Jensen Huang staked his entire company on this unexpected symbiotic relationship." As a result, Nvidia underwent a dramatic transformation from a gaming graphics card company to an AI infrastructure giant. Jensen Huang recognized the potential of parallel computing and neural network technology and boldly invested in key technologies such as CUDA. Even in the face of failure and crisis, he did not back down; instead, he grew stronger through these experiences. He is credited not with predicting the future, but with creating it himself.

Of particular note is Jensen Huang’s unique leadership style. He is known for his temper with employees?what is referred to as "Huang’s rage." Imagine a CEO who, in front of everyone, points out mistakes and shouts, "Return all the salary you’ve received so far and get out." However, the author analyzes this not as an emotional outburst, but as a strategically calculated performance. It serves as a warning that not even the slightest mistake is tolerated in order to launch new products faster and maintain higher quality than competitors. One employee who was reprimanded in this way recalled, "I couldn’t sleep for three weeks." Despite the harsh criticism, frequent overtime, and messages from the CEO arriving even at dawn, many employees have stayed with Nvidia for nearly 30 years. It is not simply because of their salaries. To them, Huang’s rage is seen as a necessary evil for technological innovation and a driving force for growth. Jensen Huang himself values these employees, believing that the experience of making mistakes becomes an asset.

The author sometimes compares Jensen Huang to Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, but emphasizes that Huang is a realist who focuses on setting achievable goals and creating markets, rather than grand philosophies about the future. When the author persistently questioned him about the dangers and philosophical implications of AI, Jensen Huang replied, "Will calculators destroy mathematics?" He views AI as nothing more than a "thinking machine," and maintains that it will not pose a threat to humanity. This pragmatic attitude distinguishes him from figures like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg and is a hallmark of Jensen Huang’s approach.

Baek Woojin, who translated the book, commented, "I envy readers who can enjoy the pleasure of reading this book without the burden of work, unlike myself." Thanks to its dense reporting and witty prose, each chapter is so immersive that you cannot help but turn to the next, much like a Netflix drama. Those who enjoyed 3D games with Nvidia graphics cards in the 1990s and now write reports with ChatGPT?the so-called "Nvidia generation"?will find this book particularly engaging. Complex IT concepts are explained intuitively and simply, making the book accessible even to non-experts.

Nvidia Jensen Huang: The Thinking Machine | Written by Stephen Witt | Translated by Baek Woojin | RHKorea | 496 pages | 28,000 won