Thank you for being here.

感謝您的光臨。

I'm delighted to be here, thank you.

很高興來到這裡，謝謝。

In honor of your return to Stanford,

慶祝你重返斯坦福大學

I decided we'd start talking about the time when you first left.

我決定從你剛離開的時候說起。

You joined LSI Logic, and that was one of the most exciting companies at the time.

你加入了 LSI Logic，那是當時最令人興奮的公司之一。

You're building a phenomenal reputation with some of the biggest names in tech, and yet you decide to leave to become a founder.

你與科技界的一些大佬建立了驚人的聲譽，但你還是決定離開，成為一名創始人。

What motivated you?

是什麼激勵了你？

Chris and Curtis.

克里斯和柯蒂斯

Chris and Curtis, I was an engineer at LSI Logic, and Chris and

克里斯和柯蒂斯，我是 LSI Logic 公司的工程師，克里斯和

Curtis were at Sun.

柯蒂斯在 Sun.

And I was working with some of the brightest minds in computer science at the time, of all time, including Andy Bechtolsheim and others, building workstations and graphics workstations, and so on and so forth.

我和當時計算機科學領域最聰明的人一起工作，包括安迪-貝希托爾斯海姆（Andy Bechtolsheim）和其他人，一起建立工作站和圖形工作站，等等。

And Chris and Curtis said one day that they'd like to leave Sun, and they'd like me to go figure out what they're gonna go leave for.

克里斯和柯蒂斯有一天說，他們想離開太陽公司，他們希望我去想一想，他們為什麼要離開。

And I had a great job, but they insisted that I figure out with them how to build a company.

我有一份很好的工作，但他們堅持要我和他們一起想辦法建立一家公司。

And so we hung out at Denny's whenever they dropped by, which is, by the way, my alma mater, my first company.

所以每當他們來的時候，我們都會去丹尼餐廳玩，順便說一句，那是我的母校，我的第一家公司。

My first job before CEO was a dishwasher, and so, and I did that very well.

在擔任首席執行官之前，我的第一份工作是洗碗工，是以，我幹得非常出色。

And so anyways, we got together, and it was during the microprocessor revolution.

總之，我們走到了一起，當時正值微處理器革命。

This is 1993, and 1992 when we were getting together.

這是 1993 年，也是 1992 年我們在一起的時候。

The PC revolution was just getting going.

個人電腦革命剛剛起步。

You know that Windows 95, obviously, which is the revolutionary version of Windows, didn't even come to the market yet.

要知道，作為 Windows 革命性版本的 Windows 95 甚至還沒有上市。

And Pentium wasn't even announced yet.

而奔騰甚至還沒有發佈。

And so, and this is all before, right before the PC revolution.

是以，這一切都發生在 PC 革命之前。

And it was pretty clear that the microprocessor was going to be very important, and we thought, why don't we build a company to go solve problems that a normal computer that is powered by general purpose computing can't?

很明顯，微處理器將變得非常重要，我們就想，為什麼我們不成立一家公司來解決普通計算機無法解決的問題呢？

And so that became the company's mission, to go build a computer, the type of computers, and solve problems that normal computers can't.

於是，這就成了公司的使命：製造一種計算機，一種能解決普通計算機所不能解決的問題的計算機。

And to this day, we're focused on that.

時至今日，我們仍專注於此。

And if you look at all the problems that, and the markets that we opened up as a result, it's things like computational drug design, weather simulation, materials design.

如果你看看所有的問題，以及我們是以開闢的市場，比如計算藥物設計、天氣模擬、材料設計等。

These are all things that we're really, really proud of.

這些都是我們非常非常自豪的事情。

Robotics, self-driving cars, autonomous software we call artificial intelligence.

機器人、自動駕駛汽車、自主軟件，我們稱之為人工智能。

And then, of course, we drove the technology so hard that eventually the computational cost went to approximately zero.

當然，後來我們大力推動這項技術的發展，最終計算成本約為零。

And it enabled a whole new way of developing software, where the computer wrote the software itself, artificial intelligence as we know it today.

它帶來了一種全新的軟件開發方式，即由計算機自己編寫軟件，也就是我們今天所熟知的人工智能。

So that was it, that was the journey.

就是這樣，這就是旅程。

Yeah.

是啊

Thank you all for coming.

感謝大家的光臨。

Well, these applications are on all of our minds today.

今天，我們都在思考這些應用。

But back then, the CEO of LSI Logic convinced his biggest investor,

但當時，LSI Logic 的首席執行官說服了他最大的投資者、

Don Valentine, to meet with you.

唐-瓦倫丁，來見你。

He is obviously the founder of Sequoia.

他顯然是紅杉的創始人。

Now I can see a lot of founders here edging forward in anticipation.

現在，我看到這裡的許多創始人都在翹首以盼。

But how did you convince the most sought-after investor in Silicon Valley to invest in a team of first-time founders, building a new product for a market that doesn't even exist?

但是，你是如何說服硅谷最炙手可熱的投資人投資一個由首次創業者組成的團隊，為一個根本不存在的市場打造新產品的呢？

I didn't know how to write a business plan.

我不知道如何撰寫商業計劃書。

So I went to a bookstore, and back then there were bookstores.

於是我去了一家書店，那時還有書店。

And in the business book section, there was this book, and it was written by somebody I knew, Gordon Bell.

在商業書籍區，有這樣一本書，作者是我認識的一個人，戈登-貝爾。

I should go find it again, but it's a very large book.

我應該再去找找，但這是一本很大的書。

And the book says, How to Write a Business Plan.

書上寫著《如何撰寫商業計劃書》。

And that was a highly specific title for a very niche market.

這是一個非常特殊的標題，針對的是一個非常小眾的市場。

And it seems like he wrote it for 14 people, and I was one of them.

他好像是為 14 個人寫的，我是其中之一。

And so I bought the book.

於是我買了這本書。

I should have known right away that that was a bad idea, because Gordon is super, super smart.

我一開始就應該知道這不是個好主意，因為戈登超級超級聰明。

And super smart people have a lot to say.

超級聰明的人有很多話要說。

And I'm pretty sure Gordon wants to teach me how to write a business plan completely.

而且我很確定戈登想徹底教我如何撰寫商業計劃書。

And so I picked up this book.

於是，我拿起了這本書。

It's like 450 pages long.

好像有 450 頁之長。

Well, I never got through it, not even close.

好吧，我從來沒有通過它，甚至沒有接近。

I flipped through it a few pages, and I go, you know what?

我翻了幾頁，然後說，你知道嗎？

By the time I'm done reading this thing, I'll be out of business.

等我讀完這篇文章，我已經失業了。

I'll be out of money.

我會沒錢的

And Lori and I only had about six months in the bank.

而我和羅莉只有六個月的存款。

We had already Spencer and Madison and a dog, and so the five of us had to live off of whatever money we had in the bank.

我們已經有了斯賓塞、麥迪遜和一條狗，所以我們五個人只能靠銀行裡的錢生活。

And so I didn't have much time, and so instead of writing the business plan,

是以我沒有太多時間，所以我沒有寫商業計劃書、

I just went to talk to Wilf Corrigan.

我剛去找了威爾弗-科里根 I just went to talk to Wilf Corrigan.

He called me one day and said, hey, you left the company.

有一天他給我打電話說，嘿，你離開公司了。

You didn't even tell me what you were doing.

你甚至都沒告訴我你在做什麼。

I want you to come back and explain it to me.

我要你回來給我解釋一下。

And so I went back and I explained it to Wilf.

於是我回去向威爾夫解釋。

And Wilf, at the end of it, he said, I have no idea what you said.

最後，威爾弗說，我不知道你說了什麼。

And that's one of the worst elevator pitches I've ever heard.

這是我聽過的最糟糕的電梯推銷之一。

And then he picked up the phone and he called Don Valentine.

然後他拿起電話，打給了唐-瓦倫丁。

And he called Don and he says, Don, I'm gonna send a kid over.

他打電話給唐，說唐，我要派一個孩子過去。

I want you to give him money.

我要你給他錢

He's one of the best employees LSI Logic ever had.

他是 LSI Logic 有史以來最優秀的員工之一。

And so the thing I learned is you can make up a great interview.

是以，我學到的是，你可以編造一個很棒的採訪。

You could even have a bad interview, but you can't run away from your past.

你甚至可以有一個糟糕的面試，但你不能逃避你的過去。

And so have a good past, try to have a good past.

所以要有美好的過去，努力擁有美好的過去。

And in a lot of ways, I was serious when I said I was a good dishwasher.

在很多方面，我說自己是個好洗碗工是認真的。

I was probably Denny's' best dishwasher.

我可能是丹尼最好的洗碗工。

I planned my work, I was organized, I was Nissan Plus.

我計劃我的工作，我井井有條，我是日產加。

And then I washed the living daylights out of the dishes.

然後我把盤子洗得乾乾淨淨。

And then they promoted me to busboy.

然後，他們把我提拔為雜工。

I was certain I'm the best busboy Denny's ever had.

我確信我是 Denny's 有史以來最好的雜工。

I never left the station empty-handed.

我從未空手離開過車站。

I never came back empty-handed.

我從未空手而歸。

I was very efficient.

我的效率很高。

And so anyways, eventually I became a CEO.

總之，我最終成為了一名首席執行官。

I'm still working on being a good CEO.

我還在努力成為一名優秀的首席執行官。

You talk about being the best.

你說你是最棒的。

You needed to be the best among 89 other companies that were funded after you to build the same thing.

你需要在其他 89 家公司中脫穎而出，這些公司都是在你之後獲得資助來建造同樣的東西的。

And then with six to nine months of runway left, you realized that the initial vision was just not gonna work.

然後，在跑道還剩 6 到 9 個月的時候，你意識到最初的設想行不通了。

How did you decide what to do next to save the company when the cards were so stacked against you?

在如此不利的情況下，您是如何決定下一步如何拯救公司的？

Well, we started this company called For Accelerated Computing.

我們創辦了一家名為 "加速計算 "的公司。

And the question is, what is it for?

問題是，它是用來做什麼的？

What's the killer app?

殺手級應用是什麼？

And that came our first great decision.

這就是我們的第一個重大決定。

And this is what Sequoia funded.

而這正是紅杉所資助的。

The first great decision was the first killer app was gonna be 3D graphics.

第一個偉大的決定是，第一個殺手級應用將是 3D 圖形。

And the technology was gonna be 3D graphics.

而這項技術將是 3D 圖形技術。

And the application was gonna be video games.

應用領域是電子遊戲。

At the time, 3D graphics was impossible to make cheap.

當時，3D 圖形不可能做得很便宜。

It was million dollar image generators from Silicon Graphics.

這是 Silicon Graphics 公司價值百萬美元的影像生成器。

And so it was a million dollars, and it's hard to make cheap.

是以，它價值一百萬美元，而且很難做得便宜。

And the video game market was $0 billion.

而電子遊戲市場的規模為 0 億美元。

So you have this incredible technology that's hard to commoditize and commercialize.

是以，你擁有的這項令人難以置信的技術很難商品化和商業化。

And then you have this market that doesn't exist.

然後你就有了這個不存在的市場。

That intersection was the founding of our company.

這個交叉點就是我們公司的成立。

And I still remember when Don, at the end of my presentation,

我還記得唐在我的演講結束時

Don was still kind of, he said, one of the things he said to me, which made a lot of sense back then, makes a lot of sense today.

唐還是那樣，他說，他對我說過的一句話，在當時很有道理，在今天也很有道理。

He says, startups don't invest in startups, or startups don't partner with startups.

他說，初創企業不投資初創企業，或者初創企業不與初創企業合作。

And his point is that in order for

他的觀點是，為了

NVIDIA to succeed, we needed another startup to succeed.

英偉達要取得成功，我們需要另一家初創公司取得成功。

And that other startup was Electronic Arts.

而另一家初創公司就是電子藝界。

And then on the way out, he reminded me that Electronic Arts' CTO is 14 years old, and had to be driven to work by his mom.

臨走時，他提醒我，Electronic Arts 的首席技術官才 14 歲，必須由他媽媽開車送他上班。

And he just wanted to remind me that that's who I'm relying on.

他只是想提醒我，這才是我的依靠。

And then after that, he said, if you lose my money, I'll kill you.

之後，他說，如果你把我的錢弄丟了，我就殺了你。

And that was kind of my memories of that first meeting.

這就是我對第一次見面的記憶。

But nonetheless, we created something.

但儘管如此，我們還是創造了一些東西。

We went on the next several years to go create the market, to create the gaming market for PCs.

在接下來的幾年裡，我們一直在創造市場，創造 PC 的遊戲市場。

And it took a long time to do so.

這需要很長的時間。

We're still doing it today.

今天，我們仍在這樣做。

We realized that not only do you have to create the technology and invent a new way of doing computer graphics so that what was $1 million is now $300, $400, $500 that fits in a computer.

我們意識到，你不僅要創造技術，還要發明一種新的計算機製圖方法，使原來的 100 萬美元現在只需 300、400 或 500 美元就能裝進電腦。

And you have to go create this new market.

你必須去創造這個新市場。

So we had to create technology, create markets.

是以，我們必須創造技術，創造市場。

The idea that a company would create technology, create markets, defines NVIDIA today.

公司創造技術、創造市場的理念決定了今天的英偉達。

Almost everything we do, we create technology, we create markets.

我們所做的一切，幾乎都是在創造技術，創造市場。

That's the reason why people would call it a stack, an ecosystem, words like that.

這就是為什麼人們稱它為堆棧、生態系統之類的詞的原因。

But that's basically it.

但基本上就是這樣。

At the core, for 30 years, what NVIDIA realized we had to do is, in order to create the conditions by which somebody could buy our products, we had to go invent this new market.

核心提示：30 年來，英偉達意識到我們必須做的是，為了創造條件讓別人購買我們的產品，我們必須去發明這個新市場。

And it's the reason why we're early in autonomous driving.

這也是我們提前實現自動駕駛的原因。

It was the reason why we're early in deep learning.

這也是我們較早開展深度學習的原因。

It was the reason why we're early in just about all these things, including computational drug design and discovery.

正因為如此，我們在包括計算藥物設計和發現在內的所有領域都處於領先地位。

All these different areas, we're trying to create the market while we're creating the technology.

在所有這些不同的領域，我們在創造技術的同時，也在努力創造市場。

And so that's, okay, and then we got going, and then Microsoft introduced a standard called Direct3D.

就這樣，好吧，然後我們就開始了，然後微軟推出了一個名為 Direct3D 的標準。

And that spawned off hundreds of companies.

由此衍生出數百家公司。

And we found ourselves, a couple years later, competing with just about everybody.

幾年後，我們發現自己幾乎可以與所有人競爭。

And the thing that we invented the company, the technology we invented 3D graphics with, the consumerized 3D with, turns out to be incompatible with Direct3D.

而我們公司的發明，我們發明 3D 圖形的技術，消費級 3D 技術，卻與 Direct3D 不兼容。

So we started this company.

於是，我們創辦了這家公司。

We had this 3D graphics thing, a million dollar thing.

我們有一個 3D 圖形技術，價值百萬美元。

We're trying to make it consumerized.

我們正在努力使其消費者化。

And so we invented all this technology.

於是，我們發明了所有這些技術。

And then shortly after, it became incompatible.

不久之後，它就變得不兼容了。

And so we had to reset the company or go out of business.

是以，我們必須重設公司，否則就得倒閉。

But we didn't know how to build it the way that Microsoft had defined it.

但我們不知道如何按照微軟的定義來構建它。

And I remember a meeting on a weekend and the conversation was, we now have 89 competitors.

我記得週末的一次會議上，大家談到，我們現在有 89 個競爭對手。

I understand that the way we do it is not right, but we don't know how to do it the right way.

我知道我們的做法不對，但我們不知道如何做才是正確的。

And thankfully, there was another bookstore.

幸好還有一家書店。

And-

還有

And the bookstore is called Fry's, Fry's Electronics.

書店的名字叫 "弗萊"，"弗萊電子"。

I don't know if it's still here.

我不知道它是否還在這裡。

And so I had, I think I drove Madison, my daughter, on a weekend to Fry's.

於是，我想我週末開車帶著我女兒麥迪遜去了弗萊斯。

And it was sitting right there, the OpenGL manual, which would define how Silicon Graphics did computer graphics.

OpenGL 手冊就擺在那裡，它將定義 Silicon Graphics 如何製作計算機圖形。

And so it was right there, it was like $68 a book.

就這樣，一本書 68 美元。

And so I had a couple hundred dollars, I bought three books.

於是我有了幾百美元，買了三本書。

I took it back to the office and I said, guys, I found it, our future.

我把它帶回辦公室，說，夥計們，我找到了，我們的未來。

And I handed out, I had three versions of it, I handed out.

我分發了三個版本。

Had a big, nice centerfold.

有一個又大又漂亮的中頁。

The centerfold is the OpenGL pipeline, which is the computer graphics pipeline.

中間部分是 OpenGL 管道，也就是計算機圖形管道。

And I handed it to the same geniuses that I founded the company with.

我把它交給了和我一起創建公司的那些天才們。

And we implemented the OpenGL pipeline like nobody had ever implemented the OpenGL pipeline, and we built something the world never seen.

我們實現了從未有人實現過的 OpenGL 管道，創造了世界上從未有過的奇蹟。

And so a lot of lessons are right there.

是以，很多經驗教訓就在這裡。

That moment in time for our company gave us so much confidence.

公司的這一時刻給了我們極大的信心。

And the reason for that is you can succeed in doing something, inventing a future, even if you were not informed about it at all.

其原因在於，即使你對未來一無所知，你也可以成功地創造未來。

And it's kind of my attitude about everything now.

這也是我現在對所有事情的態度。

When somebody tells me about something and I've never heard of it before, or

當有人告訴我某件事情，而我以前從未聽說過，或者

I've heard of it, never don't understand how it works at all.

我聽說過，但完全不明白它是如何運作的。

My first thought is always, how hard can it be?

我的第一個想法總是，這有什麼難的？

And it's probably just a textbook away.

而這可能只是一本教科書的事。

You're probably one archive paper away from figuring this out.

你可能只差一張檔案紙就能弄明白了。

And so I spent a lot of time reading archive papers.

是以，我花了很多時間閱讀檔案文件。

And it's true, it's true.

這是真的，這是真的。

You can, now of course, you can't learn how somebody else does something and do it exactly the same way and hope to have a different outcome.

當然，你現在可以學習別人的做法，但不能完全照搬，還希望能有不同的結果。

But you could learn how something can be done, and then go back to first principles.

但你可以學習如何做某事，然後再回到最初的原則。

And ask yourself, given the conditions today, given my motivation, given the instruments, the tools, given how things have changed, how would I redo this?

捫心自問，考慮到今天的條件，考慮到我的動機，考慮到工具和手段，考慮到事情的變化，我將如何重做這件事？

How would I reinvent this whole thing?

我該如何重塑這一切？

How would I design it?

我該如何設計？

How would I build a car today?

今天我將如何製造一輛汽車？

Would I build it incrementally from 1950s and 1900s?

我會從 20 世紀 50 年代到 20 世紀 90 年代逐步建造嗎？

How would I build a computer today?

今天我將如何製造一臺電腦？

How would I write software today?

今天我如何編寫軟件？

Does it make sense?

有道理嗎？

And so I go back to first principles all the time, even in the company today, and just reset ourselves.

是以，即使是在今天的公司裡，我也會經常回到第一原則，重新審視自己。

Because the world has changed.

因為世界已經變了。

And the way we wrote software in the past was monolithic, and it's designed for supercomputers, but now it's disaggregated, so on, so forth.

過去我們編寫軟件的方式是單一的，是為超級計算機設計的，而現在則是分解的，如此等等。

And how we think about software today, how we think about computers today, how we think, just always cause your company, always cause yourself to go back to first principles, and it creates lots and lots of opportunities.

我們今天如何看待軟件，我們今天如何看待計算機，我們如何看待，只要讓你的公司，讓你自己回到最初的原則，就會創造出很多很多的機會。

Yeah, the way you applied this technology turns to be revolutionary.

是的，你應用這項技術的方式是革命性的。

You get all the momentum that you need to IPO, and then some more, because you grow your revenue nine times in the next four years.

你獲得了首次公開募股所需的所有動力，然後還有更多，因為在接下來的四年裡，你的收入增長了九倍。

But in the middle of all of this success, you decide to pivot a little bit the focus of innovation happening at NVIDIA, based on a phone call you have with this chemistry professor.

但在這一切成功的背後，你決定根據與這位化學教授的通話內容，稍微調整一下英偉達的創新重點。

Can you tell us about that phone call, and how you connected the dots from what you heard to where you went?