“Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.” —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range
Nvidia is as valuable as Apple and Microsoft. It has shaped the world as we know it. But its story is little known. This is the definitive story of the greatest technology company of our times.
In June of 2024, thirty-one years after its founding in a Denny’s restaurant, Nvidia became the most valuable corporation on Earth. The Thinking Machine is the astonishing story of how a designer of video game equipment conquered the market for AI hardware, and in the process re-invented the computer.
Essential to Nvidia’s meteoric success is its visionary CEO Jensen Huang, who more than a decade ago, on the basis of a few promising scientific results, bet his entire company on AI. Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Witt documents for the first time the company’s epic rise and its single-minded and ferocious leader, now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.
The Thinking Machine is the story of how Nvidia evolved to supplying hundred-million-dollar supercomputers. It is the story of a determined entrepreneur who defied Wall Street to push his radical vision for computing, becoming one of the wealthiest men alive. It is the story of a revolution in computer architecture, and the small group of renegade engineers who made it happen. And it’s the story of our awesome and terrifying AI future, which Huang has billed as the ‘next industrial revolution,’ as a new kind of microchip unlocks hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, self-driving cars, and new movies, art, and books, generated on command.
This is the story of the company that is inventing the future.
Advance Praise for The Thinking Machine
“Gripping and brilliantly told, this is the amazing story of the improbable origins of one of the most important technologies of our times.” —Mustafa Suleyman, New York Times bestselling author of The Coming Wave and CEO of Microsoft AI
“Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.” —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range
“The Thinking Machine brilliantly captures the riveting, unlikely story of Jensen Huang’s Nvidia—a company driving the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and humanity's inevitable merger with technology. Stephen Witt’s exceptional reporting offers a rare glimpse into the pioneers driving humanity’s leap toward an infinite future.” —Ray Kurzweil, New York Times bestselling author of The Singularity is Nearer
“The AI revolution that defines this decade, and probably this century, rests on the shoulders of a shockingly small number of geniuses; and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is prominent among them. Witt’s superb portrait is both entertaining and disquieting, capturing an indispensable, elusive, and isolated man: the hardware wizard behind the machines that are careering toward something very much like sentience.” —Sebastian Mallaby, New York Times bestselling author of More Money Than God and The Power of Law
“Jensen Huang is smarter than the rest of us. He had the vision to see before anyone else that AI is the transformative technology of our time and the business chops to capitalize. Stephen Witt's up-close account of Nvidia's rise is an essential introduction to the future we are all going to be living in.” —Scott Galloway, Professor or Marketing NYU Stern and Co-host of the Pivot and Prof G Markets Podcasts
“Before reading The Thinking Machine, I didn't understand just how much the rise of Jensen Huang and Nvidia explains the sudden explosion of artificial intelligence. Stephen Witt’s sweeping narrative offers a roadmap to the various forces rapidly changing our lives, tucked into the wild insider story of how one of our strangest and most singular entrepreneurs—in an era chock full of them—not only built a remarkable company but also helped to usher in our brave new world.” —Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser
“The Thinking Machine is a delicious account of how a scrawny Taiwanese immigrant, with an intense commitment to reason, loyalty to people, and a Stakhanovite work ethic, built the engine of the AI revolution.” —Michael Moritz, former Chairman, Sequoia Capital
“A fun and well-informed look at its subject matter. There should be more books on one of the world’s most valuable companies, and yes here supply is elastic.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Stephen Witt is the author of The Thinking Machine, a forthcoming book on the AI hardware giant Nvidia. His first book, How Music Got Free, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Financial Times, New York, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and GQ. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
View titles by Stephen Witt
“Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.” —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range
Nvidia is as valuable as Apple and Microsoft. It has shaped the world as we know it. But its story is little known. This is the definitive story of the greatest technology company of our times.
In June of 2024, thirty-one years after its founding in a Denny’s restaurant, Nvidia became the most valuable corporation on Earth. The Thinking Machine is the astonishing story of how a designer of video game equipment conquered the market for AI hardware, and in the process re-invented the computer.
Essential to Nvidia’s meteoric success is its visionary CEO Jensen Huang, who more than a decade ago, on the basis of a few promising scientific results, bet his entire company on AI. Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Witt documents for the first time the company’s epic rise and its single-minded and ferocious leader, now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.
The Thinking Machine is the story of how Nvidia evolved to supplying hundred-million-dollar supercomputers. It is the story of a determined entrepreneur who defied Wall Street to push his radical vision for computing, becoming one of the wealthiest men alive. It is the story of a revolution in computer architecture, and the small group of renegade engineers who made it happen. And it’s the story of our awesome and terrifying AI future, which Huang has billed as the ‘next industrial revolution,’ as a new kind of microchip unlocks hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, self-driving cars, and new movies, art, and books, generated on command.
This is the story of the company that is inventing the future.
Praise
Advance Praise for The Thinking Machine
“Gripping and brilliantly told, this is the amazing story of the improbable origins of one of the most important technologies of our times.” —Mustafa Suleyman, New York Times bestselling author of The Coming Wave and CEO of Microsoft AI
“Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.” —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range
“The Thinking Machine brilliantly captures the riveting, unlikely story of Jensen Huang’s Nvidia—a company driving the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and humanity's inevitable merger with technology. Stephen Witt’s exceptional reporting offers a rare glimpse into the pioneers driving humanity’s leap toward an infinite future.” —Ray Kurzweil, New York Times bestselling author of The Singularity is Nearer
“The AI revolution that defines this decade, and probably this century, rests on the shoulders of a shockingly small number of geniuses; and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is prominent among them. Witt’s superb portrait is both entertaining and disquieting, capturing an indispensable, elusive, and isolated man: the hardware wizard behind the machines that are careering toward something very much like sentience.” —Sebastian Mallaby, New York Times bestselling author of More Money Than God and The Power of Law
“Jensen Huang is smarter than the rest of us. He had the vision to see before anyone else that AI is the transformative technology of our time and the business chops to capitalize. Stephen Witt's up-close account of Nvidia's rise is an essential introduction to the future we are all going to be living in.” —Scott Galloway, Professor or Marketing NYU Stern and Co-host of the Pivot and Prof G Markets Podcasts
“Before reading The Thinking Machine, I didn't understand just how much the rise of Jensen Huang and Nvidia explains the sudden explosion of artificial intelligence. Stephen Witt’s sweeping narrative offers a roadmap to the various forces rapidly changing our lives, tucked into the wild insider story of how one of our strangest and most singular entrepreneurs—in an era chock full of them—not only built a remarkable company but also helped to usher in our brave new world.” —Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser
“The Thinking Machine is a delicious account of how a scrawny Taiwanese immigrant, with an intense commitment to reason, loyalty to people, and a Stakhanovite work ethic, built the engine of the AI revolution.” —Michael Moritz, former Chairman, Sequoia Capital
“A fun and well-informed look at its subject matter. There should be more books on one of the world’s most valuable companies, and yes here supply is elastic.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Stephen Witt is the author of The Thinking Machine, a forthcoming book on the AI hardware giant Nvidia. His first book, How Music Got Free, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Financial Times, New York, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and GQ. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
View titles by Stephen Witt
