In a candid fireside chat with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum (WEF), NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang reflected on the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence. However, it was a nostalgic—and incredibly expensive—regret from his early days that stole the spotlight.
The World’s Most Expensive S-Class
Huang shared that shortly after NVIDIA's IPO in 1999, he sold 11,250 shares of the company to buy a Mercedes-Benz S-Class for his parents. At the time, NVIDIA stock was trading at just $12 per share, with a total market cap of roughly $300 million.
Today, those shares—after decades of splits and growth—would be worth a staggering $1.33 billion (approx. 50 billion THB). Huang joked that this particular Mercedes is likely the most expensive car in history. To this day, his parents still keep the car as a memento of his early success.
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Beyond personal anecdotes, Huang provided a sharp outlook on the AI revolution:
Collaboration over Replacement: Addressing fears of job loss, Huang cited radiologists as a prime example. While AI helps interpret medical images more efficiently, the global demand for healthcare services is rising even faster, meaning AI acts as an accelerator rather than a replacement.
Is there an AI Bubble?: Huang dismissed the idea of a current "AI bubble," noting that demand still far outstrips supply. The high rental prices for AI chips and the massive backlog of orders suggest that the world is only at the beginning of this technological shift.
Many might wonder how just ten thousand shares of stock could become billions of dollars? The answer is that NVIDIA has undergone numerous stock splits (such as a 1:10 split in 2024), exponentially increasing the number of original shares while the value per share grew massively.
At this year's WEF, Jensen maintained his signature black leather jacket, a symbol of "approachable leadership" and "innovation," much like Steve Jobs' turtleneck.
A key takeaway Jensen often emphasizes is that we are moving beyond the era of AI merely "retrieving" (retrieval) to an era where AI can "reason." This is why NVIDIA chips remain in frenzied demand, as reasoning requires many times more processing power than before.
The fact that Larry Fink (the world's largest investor from BlackRock) personally interviewed Jensen sends a clear signal that "AI is not just a technological trend, but a new infrastructure for the global economy."
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