Modern CTO How Jensen Huang Built the World's Most Valuable Company with Stephen Witt, Author of "The Thinking Machine"
Feb 16, 2026
Stephen Witt, author and journalist who wrote The Thinking Machine about Jensen Huang and NVIDIA. He recounts bluffing his way into interviews and explores Jensen's hands-on, urgent leadership. The conversation covers CUDA’s role in enabling AI research, Jensen’s zero-dollar market strategy, and why NVIDIA operates like it’s 30 days from bankruptcy.
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How Witt Got Jensen To Talk
- Stephen Witt lied and brokered a fictitious New Yorker profile to secure Jensen Huang's interviews.
- That preparation led to six interviews and privileged access that shaped the book.
Leadership By Frontline Immersion
- Jensen Huang operates at the center of NVIDIA, preferring direct interaction over hierarchy.
- He samples front-line emails and keeps 65 direct reports to stay close to company problems.
Ask Scientists Big 'What If' Questions
- Jensen asked scientists what they could do with a millionfold more compute and funded tools for them.
- That scientist-first approach seeded NVIDIA's pivot into AI hardware over a decade.
