Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has gone from the bottom to becoming a multi-billionaire, but that doesn’t mean he’s above doing the little tasks.
Even in his most humble of jobs, the world’s ninth-richest man never shied away from the dirty work.
“I cleaned a lot of toilets. I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined, and some of them you just can’t unsee,” he said.
If someone approaches Huang with a call for help, he said he tries to at least contribute. That way, at least, the person with the problem can see a new way of thinking about the problem, he added.
“If you send me something and you want my input on it, and I can be of service to you, and in my review of it, share with you how I reason through it, I’ve made a contribution to you,” Huang said. “I’ve made it possible for you to see how I reason through something, and by reasoning, as you know, how someone reasons through something empowers you.”
Years after he worked at the chain as a dishwasher, the Stanford graduate met with his future cofounders, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, to discuss the idea of a chip that would make 3D graphics possible on a PC. This idea sparked what would later become Nvidia, a chip empire that is now worth $4.5 trillion.
It wasn’t easy at first, according to Huang. When he presented the idea to his boss at LSI Logic, Wilfred Corrigan, he called it “one of the worst elevator pitches he’s ever heard.”
Elon Musk, who actually played a role in Nvidia’s origin story, commented on the resurfaced Huang interview this week.
