Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that the company’s advantage in artificial intelligence chips was thanks to a bet it made over 10 years ago, centering on billions of dollars in AI investment and a team of thousands of engineers.
Huang’s comments came during the question-and-answer period of Nvidia’s first shareholder meeting since the company’s stock began to surge, after Wall Street’s heightened interest in the company’s dominant position in the AI chip market.
Since last year’s meeting, the company has been on a historic run: Nvidia’s stock is up 193%, its shares split 10-1, the company passed a $3 trillion valuation and it briefly reached the status of most valuable company in the U.S.
The first question Huang answered Wednesday was about the company’s competition, as traditional chipmakers and startups alike release products intended to challenge Nvidia’s more than 80% market share in AI chips.
Nvidia shares fell more than 1% in trading on Wednesday.
Without naming competitors, Huang laid out the company’s overall strategy to maintain its position, leading with the idea that Nvidia has already “transformed” into a data-center focused company from its previous gaming focus. The company is also looking to create new markets for its AI, such as in industrial robotics, and it aims to partner with every computer maker and cloud provider to do so.
Huang said that its AI chips provide the “lowest total cost of ownership,” suggesting that while other chips may be less expensive, Nvidia’s are more economical considering their performance and cost to run.
Ultimately, Huang said Nvidia had achieved a “virtuous circle,” a term in the technology industry that refers to when a platform has the most users, which allows it to make the improvements it needs to attract even more users.
“The NVIDIA platform is broadly available through every major cloud provider and computer maker, creating a large and attractive install base for developers and customers, which makes our platform more valuable to our customers,” Huang said.
Nvidia shareholders were pleased with the company’s performance, and approved a non-binding vote on executive compensation called “say on pay.” Nvidia executives are paid in a combination of salary and various kinds of restricted stock units.
Huang received a compensation package worth about $34 million during the company’s 2024 fiscal year, a 60% increase since 2023, according to the company’s annual filing.