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"The 1920s, water went into a generator, and DC Power came out. Now electrons go into a generator, and intelligence comes out."

- By Harry McCracken, Jeff Beer

01 NVIDIA
FOR BRINGING THE CHIPS TO THE AI PARTY

THE POWER BROKER

ITS CHIPS SPARKED THE AI REVOLUTION. NOW NVIDIA IS PUTTING THE TECH TO WORK ACROSS INDUSTRIES.

I'M CHATTING WITH NVIDIA CEO JENSEN HUANG AT the chip giant's Silicon Valley headquarters, where one of its DGX H100 computing modules sits partially disassembled before us. Stuffed with blazingly fast processors and other cutting-edge components, the box, which can sell for as much as $500,000, is a foundational building block of the supercomputers used by huge companies, startups, and universities alike to power transformative new AI experiences, and Huang has turned to a previous technological revolution to explain its significance.

It's an evocative comparison: AI running on Nvidia hardware changing everyday life as profoundly as electricity once did. But if anything, it understates Nvidia's sweeping influence on the current moment. Even its overwhelmingly dominant market share for AI chips-85%, according to Raymond James Financialdoesn't convey Nvidia's contribution to AI as we know it.