The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip

In June 2024, thirty-one years after its founding in a Denny's restaurant, Nvidia became the most valuable corporation on Earth. The Thinking Machine tells the story of how the company evolved from a designer of video game equipment to a dominant force in AI hardware, fundamentally reshaping computing in the process. At the center of this narrative is Jensen Huang, Nvidia's only CEO, who over a decade ago committed the entire company to AI based on promising scientific results. Through extensive access to Huang, his colleagues, investors, and employees, Stephen Witt documents the company's rise and its visionary leader, now one of Silicon Valley's most influential figures. The book chronicles Nvidia's evolution toward supplying hundred-million-dollar supercomputers, a determined entrepreneur's defiance of Wall Street skepticism, and the revolution in computer architecture driven by a small group of engineers. It explores how Nvidia's microchip technology enables hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, self-driving cars, and AI-generated media—developments Huang has characterized as the 'next industrial revolution.'