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On 29 October 2025, Nvidia became the first listed company to reach a value of five trillion US dollars. The same man has been at the top since its founding: Jensen Huang, born on 17 February 1963 in Taipei. He has led the company as chief executive since 1993. The success rests on a decision made long before the AI boom. It shows the Quality of Vision.
Founding on scarce resources
Situation
Huang founded Nvidia on 5 April 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The first chip, the NV1, relied on a technology that did not catch on. In 1996, Huang laid off more than half of the workforce. When the RIVA 128 chip came out in August 1997, there was, according to Wikipedia, only enough money left for one month’s payroll.
Link to the quality
Vision does not protect against mistakes. But it helps you hold your direction after a failure and change the route. Leaders should hold on to the goal and keep the means flexible.
A platform without a market
Situation
In 1999, Nvidia launched the GeForce 256 and marketed it as the first graphics processing unit. In 2004, the company brought in the Stanford researcher Ian Buck. His work led to CUDA, a platform for general-purpose computing on graphics processors. It was released in February 2007. According to Wikipedia, Nvidia invested more than one billion US dollars in its development.
Link to the quality
A vision sees a benefit that customers are not yet asking for. It therefore needs a rationale that goes beyond current figures. Those who lead must be able to explain why an investment will only pay off later.
Years of perseverance
Situation
The market for CUDA remained small at first. Huang himself is said to have told investors that there was currently no market for it. Internally, according to one report, he spoke of a zero-dollar market that would one day be worth billions. In 2013, an activist investor bought in and voiced concerns about the spending.
Link to the quality
This is where vision meets commitment. Funding an idea for years against resistance requires a firm promise to your own team. Honesty about the missing market strengthens credibility along the way.
The groundwork pays off
Situation
On 30 September 2012, the neural network AlexNet won an important image recognition competition. It was written with CUDA and trained on two Nvidia graphics cards. In August 2016, Nvidia handed over its first AI computer, the DGX-1, to OpenAI. In May 2023, the market value passed one trillion US dollars. On 18 June 2024, Nvidia was the most valuable company in the world for the first time.
Link to the quality
When research needed powerful computers, the platform was ready. Vision means creating the conditions before the need becomes visible. The lead is built in the years when nobody is watching.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Hold on to your goal and stay flexible about the route.
- Justify long-term investments in a way your team understands.
- Say openly when there is no market for your idea yet.
- Fund your vision reliably, even against resistance.
- Create the conditions before the need is visible to everyone.
Summary
Jensen Huang has led Nvidia since 1993. With CUDA, he bet early on graphics processors for scientific computing, even though the market was missing. Around a decade later, the platform became the foundation of modern AI. For fiscal year 2026, Nvidia reported revenue of 215.9 billion US dollars.