Written by: Techub News Edited

Introduction

In the latest episode of the "Founders Podcast," host David Senra once again delves deep into "The Nvidia Way," a book about NVIDIA and its founder Jensen Huang. Unlike the comprehensive review in episode 376 that covered Huang's life and NVIDIA's founding history, this episode focuses on how Huang "works"—his unique management philosophy and company operations. As the longest-serving CEO of a tech company in the world, Huang has led NVIDIA through multiple technological cycles, transforming it from a graphics chip company into the cornerstone of artificial intelligence computing, with a market value exceeding three trillion dollars. In the current context of the global AI wave, understanding the thought processes and action guidelines of this legendary leader is invaluable for gaining insight into the future of the tech industry and learning how to build great companies.

Summary

• Jensen Huang believes that "Complacency kills," and he views continuous self-renewal as a survival imperative for the company, not an optional strategy.
• He advocates for extreme flat organization, having 60 direct subordinates, and uses mechanisms such as "whiteboard communication," "public criticism," and "Top 5 emails" to ensure rapid information flow and collective learning.
• Huang places extreme importance on "speed," requiring the team to work at "the speed of light," and drives the company forward with "stifling incentives" (attracting top talent with generous rewards) and a strategy of "fully assaulting the biggest opportunities."
• He firmly believes that companies should create new markets rather than compete for existing shares, a philosophy that runs through every key transformation from CUDA ecosystem development to "All in AI."

"Professor" Jensen Huang: The Absolute Core of Communication and Teaching

Within NVIDIA, colleagues often refer to Jensen Huang as "the professor." This isn't only because he excels at explaining complex concepts clearly on a whiteboard, but also because he invests a significant amount of time teaching the entire organization. "The Nvidia Way" begins with the statement: "In another life, Jensen Huang might have become a teacher." Costco founder Jim Sinegal once said that if a founder doesn't spend 90% of their time teaching, they are neglecting their duties. Huang understands this deeply—his teaching is both persuasive and ubiquitous.

This ingrained communication culture has yielded significant results: you can talk to two NVIDIA employees who do not know each other, and they will give nearly identical accounts. Huang seems to have achieved a "mental merger" with everyone in the company, ensuring that every individual understands the overall strategy and vision. This high level of coherence is the foundation for NVIDIA's ability to remain agile and focused in complex technological and market environments.

Whiteboard Philosophy: Transparency, Rigor, and Continuous Innovation

Jensen Huang requires the whiteboard to be the main communication tool in meetings. He believes that real-time demonstration of the thought process on a whiteboard forces employees to present their logic in front of an audience, with no place to hide. This format demands both rigor and transparency; every time one stands in front of the whiteboard, they must start from scratch and articulate ideas as thoroughly and clearly as possible. Any oversight in thinking will be immediately exposed.

At a deeper level, the whiteboard philosophy is closely tied to Huang's vision for building the company: it represents possibility and transience. No matter how brilliant the content on the whiteboard, it will ultimately be erased to make space for new ideas. This symbolizes Huang's firm belief in continuous innovation—which is not optional but a necessity for survival. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, once told his company that within five years a faster, more efficient, and more capable competitor would emerge, and the only way to avoid being eliminated was to become that company. Huang similarly embeds this sense of "self-disruption" into NVIDIA's cultural DNA.

Complacency Kills: The Paranoia of Survival and the Shaping of Pain

"Complacency kills" is a belief that Jensen Huang repeatedly emphasizes in his book. He possesses extreme confidence, charisma, and an internal voice that constantly tells him, "You are not good enough." At NVIDIA, innovation is a necessity, not an option. One of Huang's greatest fears may be complacency taking root within the company.

This vigilance against complacency runs through NVIDIA's history. As early as 1997, Huang stated at a monthly company meeting: "We have 30 days left before we go out of business." At that time, NVIDIA's revenue was only 1/860th of Intel's, yet he told the team: "We need to take down Intel before they take us out." This paranoia echoes the sentiment of former Intel CEO Andy Grove's saying, "Only the paranoid survive." Steve Jobs also held a similar philosophy: after creating great products, one should continue doing other exciting things and not dwell on the past.

Huang does not only remain vigilant against external competition but also internalizes this self-criticism. An executive recalls that after an extremely successful quarter, Huang stood in front of the team and said, "Every morning when I look in the mirror, I tell myself, 'You are terrible.'" He believes that excellence comes from the ability to endure pain. In speeches at Caltech and Stanford, he expressed similar views: setbacks and suffering shape character, resilience, and agility, which are the ultimate superpowers. He "hopes" students experience enough pain and hardships, as greatness stems from character, and character is formed through suffering.

Flat Organization and Public Criticism: Engines of Efficiency and Learning

Jensen Huang’s organizational structure is extremely flat; he has 60 direct subordinates and does not have one-on-one meetings. He designed this structure so that employees can act more independently while eliminating low performers who are not accustomed to independent thinking and waiting for instructions. A flat structure can combat the dangers of slow decision-making, which, as Jeff Bezos says, drives away top talent.

Huang likens his executive team to AI agents that need prompting and programming—experts in their respective fields who do their jobs far better than he does. He refuses to change this management philosophy, even when new board members suggested he hire a chief operating officer (COO) to lighten his administrative burden; he directly rejected the idea. He has created a company he can manage directly, just as a CEO knows how to drive a race car.

Complementary to the flat organization is public criticism. Huang does not believe in the cliché of "public praise, private criticism." He openly criticizes to allow the entire organization to learn from one person's mistakes. For example, after the NV30 chip project failed, he harshly criticized engineers at an all-hands meeting and invited executives from Best Buy to discuss customer dissatisfaction. He believes feedback is learning; why let only one person learn? The goal of company optimization is not to avoid embarrassing someone but to ensure the company learns from mistakes.

This approach is similar to the philosophy of Steve Jobs, who once told Apple's chief designer Jony Ive that if one cares too much about the team's feelings by moderating criticism, that is vanity, placing how others perceive them above the quality of work. Huang's aim is likewise not to hurt feelings but to forge the character of the company.

Speed of Light, Extremism, and Stifling Incentives

Jensen Huang requires employees to work at "the speed of light." This means breaking projects down into tasks and setting a hypothetical "no delays, no queuing, no downtime" theoretical shortest completion time for each task. The company uses this "speed of light" standard to measure itself, not past achievements or competitors' performances. This is another concrete tool against complacency.

Huang himself is the embodiment of "extremism." He works all the time and believes no one works harder than he does. "Someone may be smarter than me, but no one works harder than I do." He cannot tolerate complaints about long hours and has likened them to Olympic athletes complaining about early morning training—this is a necessary prerequisite for pursuing excellence. He even "surprise attacks" employees at the urinal to ask about work progress.

When recruiting top talent, he adheres to the principle of "I will choke you with gold." He values company stock as much as blood, personally reviews stock allocation reports, and can directly grant special stock rewards to subordinates to ensure that employees making outstanding contributions feel appreciated immediately. This reflects his deep concern for details at every level of the company.

Information Antenna and Action Strategy

To obtain unfiltered real information from the vast organization, Jensen Huang established the "Top 5 email" system. He requires employees at all levels to regularly send emails listing their top five priorities and observed market dynamics (customer pain points, competitor activities, technological developments, project delay risks, etc.). The ideal email consists of five points starting with verbs. He reads about 100 of these emails daily to catch "weak signals" within the company.

He emphasizes that "strategy is not words; strategy is action." NVIDIA does not have a five-year plan because the world is alive. They continuously plan and respond flexibly. This aligns with the philosophies of Teledyne founder Henry Singleton and Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg: focus on the small opportunities that emerge daily and achieve success through a series of incremental advances, rather than relying on a grand central plan.

In project execution, he promotes the "mission is the boss" and "pilot in command" systems. Each project has a clear leader (the pilot in command) who reports directly to Huang. Any discussion must relate to the specific person in charge, eliminating vague excuses like "that team is responsible." This echoes Elon Musk's principle of "question every demand, and find the specific person responsible for making the demand."

Create Markets, Assault Opportunities: The Long Journey from CUDA to AI

Jensen Huang does not believe in producing commodity products, as that will lead to price wars. He firmly believes NVIDIA should do what others cannot do, bringing unique value to the market to create new markets rather than compete for existing market share. In a speech at Caltech, he explained the rationale for entering the robotics field: "We decided to build a field that definitely has no customers." With no customers, there are also no competitors; it is a potential market worth hundreds of billions.

This philosophy is vividly reflected in NVIDIA's investment in GPU general-purpose computing (GPGPU) and the CUDA ecosystem, and ultimately going "All in AI." As early as 2002, Huang noticed researchers "hacking" GPUs for non-graphical computing. He keenly realized this would greatly expand the GPU market and decided to invest resources to make this process easier—this is the origin of CUDA. To make CUDA the standard, NVIDIA spent a huge amount of money in 2007-2008, leading to gross margins dropping from 45% to 35%, compounded by the financial crisis, causing stock prices to plummet over 80%. Faced with pressure from investors, Huang remained steadfast: "I firmly believe in CUDA's potential; we must make that sacrifice."

To nurture the market, NVIDIA actively "educates" developers. The company's chief scientist gave over 100 speeches within a year, personally taught at universities, and even wrote a textbook due to the lack of teaching materials, which has been translated into multiple languages and adopted by hundreds of schools. This mirrors Intel's strategy in promoting microprocessors in the past.

When deep learning emerged, NVIDIA's internal executive team had differing opinions, believing it might be a fleeting trend. Huang staunchly disagreed: "Deep learning is going to be very big; we should invest everything we have." He announced that AI would become the company's top priority. This strategy of "Swarm your greatest opportunity" combined sustained commitment (from first noticing the trend in 2002 to fully pushing it in the 2010s), massive investment, and ecosystem building, ultimately constructed a powerful "self-reinforcing network" for NVIDIA (Huang dislikes the term "moat," believing it can lead to complacency).

As "The Nvidia Way" concludes: "There are no shortcuts. The best way to succeed is to choose the harder path. And the best teacher is adversity." Jensen Huang continues to work at a pace that exhausts most people, and without hesitation or doubt, says, "I love NVIDIA." His management philosophy is the crystallization of this love and extreme rationality, providing a valuable roadmap for anyone hoping to build something great.

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