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Jensen Huang on running NVIDIA and hard problems: interview summary

A conversation with NVIDIA's Jensen Huang

Stripe · May 21, 2024 · about 65 min

Uploaded May 21, 2024 · 473.7K views (as of Oct 30, 2026)

Good value given

He has 60+ direct reports and says that's on purpose, because it keeps the company flat and information moving fast.
He doesn't do one-on-ones. He shares almost everything with his whole staff at once, so nobody's contribution depends on privileged access to information.
He tells people that suffering through hard problems builds the character that great work needs.
He likes going after markets that don't exist yet, where the work is so hard that few people try.
He says computing is about to be used to speed up nearly everything, and every company should plan for that.

Why does Jensen Huang wish pain and suffering on people?

He says choosing a career only by passion leaves something out. Great work is hard, and hard work comes with setbacks, so he wants people to build the resilience that only comes from going through tough stretches. He sees that character as what lets a person keep going long enough to do something that's never been done.

Worth watching?Good value given. Patrick Collison asks sharp questions and Jensen answers with real specifics on how he runs NVIDIA. The management section in the first 20 minutes is the most useful part for founders.

ActionableLessons

Actionable

Share your next update with the whole team at once, instead of passing it down one person at a time.
Write down one problem you're avoiding because it's hard, and start on it this week.
Ask what market your idea could create, instead of only which market it fits into.
Plan your week around your priorities on purpose, instead of letting your calendar fill itself.

Lessons

Flat teams move faster when everyone hears the same information.
Resilience comes from going through hard things, so don't try to avoid every setback.
Big wins often come from work that looks unreasonable at the start.
Reasoning in public lets your team learn how you think, which is its own kind of training.

Quick answer

Jensen Huang sat down with Stripe for this interview, published May 21, 2024. Here's our summary in our own words: a verdict, the answer to the big question, 5 takeaways, Actionable and Lessons tabs, then the stories, frameworks and how to use them.

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Watch the interview

Watch on YouTube: A conversation with NVIDIA's Jensen Huang

Channel: Stripe. Published May 21, 2024. About 65 minutes.

Who is Jensen Huang?

Jensen Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has been its CEO since. The company started in graphics chips for games and became central to modern computing.

In this talk at Stripe Sessions, he speaks with Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison about leadership, company structure and where computing is going.

Key stories from the interview

Patrick asks him to review his own keynote. Jensen jokes about it, then explains how he thinks about speaking to his whole company.
Patrick brings up a line Jensen said at Stanford, wishing students 'ample doses of pain and suffering', and Jensen explains what he meant.
They talk about the CUDA bet, a long investment NVIDIA made before the market was there, and how to know when to stick with a vision.
Patrick shares that he tested language models in Irish, and they talk about how these models might learn the 'language' of biology too.

Frameworks and ideas

Flat structure: a large group of direct reports, with information shared with everyone at once.
Live a life of purpose: decide what you will work on, then manage your time around it.
Pick very hard problems: if it's insanely hard and it works, it can make a real contribution.
Steady improvement: he expects AI accuracy to keep improving year after year, the same way computer vision did.

In their words (paraphrased)

He doesn't believe there's information he works with that only one or two people should hear.
When you want to build something great, it's hard, and doing hard things means you'll suffer along the way.
Almost all of our purposes should be doing something that has never been done before.

How to apply this

If you lead a team, try one week of sharing decisions and context in a group channel instead of in private.
When something gets hard, treat it as a sign you're working on something worthwhile.
Look for problems where your skills give you a head start and few others are trying.

Read the biography

Want the longer story? Read our The Nvidia Way summary.

A note on this summary

This page reports what was said in the interview, in our own words. Lines under 'In their words' are paraphrased from the transcript, so check the video for exact wording.

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FAQ: questions people ask

Why doesn't Jensen Huang do one-on-ones?

He says he shares nearly everything with his whole staff at once, because he doesn't want anyone's contribution to depend on privileged access to information.

How many direct reports does Jensen Huang have?

In this interview he says NVIDIA's leadership team is 60+ people and they all report to him.

What did Jensen Huang mean by pain and suffering?

He means great work is hard, and going through hard stretches builds the resilience and character you need to keep going.