Leading a multi-trillion-dollar company that has become a foundational pillar of the latest AI boom is a tall order. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO for more than three decades, is acutely aware of that.
In an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” published on Wednesday, Huang spoke frankly about the mental toll of steering his chip company out of near bankruptcy and ensuring Nvidia remains ahead of the curve in the AI race.
“The phrase ’30 days from going out of business’ I’ve used for 33 years,” Huang said in the interview. “The feeling doesn’t change. The sense of vulnerability, the sense of uncertainty, the sense of insecurity — it doesn’t leave you.”
Before Nvidia became one of the most valuable companies in the world — with a $4.4 trillion market cap as of Wednesday — the chipmaker was on the brink of bankruptcy at least three times in the ’90s.
Those days are far behind Nvidia, but that hasn’t allayed Huang’s fear of failure — nor does Nvidia’s latest success make him any less of a workaholic.
“I work a lot,” Huang said, adding that he’s running the company seven days a week.
Here’s what Huang had to say on leadership and what it’s like leading Nvidia.
A spokesperson for Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.
Vulnerability and leadership can go together
Huang, one of the longest-serving tech CEOs in history, told Rogan that he believes vulnerability and leadership aren’t mutually exclusive qualities.
“I think there’s nothing inconsistent with being a leader and being vulnerable,” he said. “The company doesn’t need me to be a genius, right all along, right all the time, absolutely certain about what I’m trying to do and what I’m doing. The company doesn’t need that.”
The CEO said that being vulnerable allows him to be open to feedback from his peers and consider different strategies if he’s ever wrong.
“If we put ourselves into this superhuman capability, then it’s hard for us to pivot strategy — because we were supposed to be right all along,” he said. “And so if you’re always right, how can you possibly pivot? Because pivoting requires you to be wrong. And so I’ve got no trouble with being wrong.”
He’s in a constant ‘state of anxiety’
The Nvidia CEO said part of what drives him is a “fear of failure.”
“I have a greater drive from not wanting to fail than the drive of wanting to succeed,” Huang said, adding that he’s “always in a state of anxiety.”
He recalled some of the near-death experiences his company brushed with in the ’90s, including one of the first moments when Nvidia was unable to fulfill a contract with Sega, a Japanese video game company. The Sega CEO at the time, Shoichiro Irimajiri, decided to hand Huang a $5 million lifeline.
Those were formative experiences that gave Huang his mantra — “30 days from going out of business” — for the next three decades at Nvidia.
“I’m not ambitious, for example,” Huang said, facetiously, “I just want to stay alive.”
The Nvidia CEO also doesn’t hold any illusions about success.
“There’s long periods of suffering and loneliness and uncertainty and fear and embarrassment and humiliation,” he said. “All of the feelings that we most not love.”
Huang has previously emphasized the importance of “pain and suffering.” He reiterated the point to Rogan.
“I think it’s good that we pass that forward and let people know that — that it’s just part of the journey,” he said. “Suffering is part of the journey.”
Huang reads thousands of emails a day
Huang told Rogan that he typically wakes up early, checking his inbox for the first few hours of his day. And there are thousands of emails to read, according to the CEO.
It’s part of his routine to maintain what he called a “culture of staying super alert.”
“There’s no easy way of being alert except for paying attention,” he said. “I haven’t found a single way of being able to stay alert without paying attention. And so, you know, I probably read several thousand emails a day.”
There are no days off in the Huang family
Huang has previously revealed that he’s a workaholic, working 14-hour days and through holidays.
That relentless work ethic has apparently been passed down to his two kids, who are both employees at Nvidia.
“Both of my kids work at Nvidia,” Huang said. “They work every day. I’m very lucky.”
