Nvidia's Leader Jensen Huang Forecasts the Future
In this episode of Our Website's podcast, David Meier and Mary Long discuss Jensen Huang's CES 2025 keynote, diving into the "cool stuff" Nvidia has in store, from personal supercomputers to self-driving trucks and AI-rendered worlds. They also discuss the rollout of a digital workforce and why Wall Street was seemingly unimpressed by Nvidia's announcements.
Later in the show, Jason Moser joins the discussion to delve deeper into PayPal, examining why the payments processor's shares have fallen from their recent highs and what CEO Alex Chriss is doing to return the company to its roots.
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Mary welcomes David to the show, commenting on Jensen Huang's new glittery leather jacket during his CES 2025 keynote. David expresses his doubts about whether the trend will catch on quickly or be exclusive to certain boutiques.
As they move on to the actual technological updates, David explains that Nvidia continues to support its gaming segment, despite its data center business surpassing gaming in revenue. He believes the company wants to maintain its brand cachet and set standards for video quality.
Next, David discusses Nvidia's AI supercomputer, Digits, which costs $3,000 and has enough memory to rival ChatGPT 3.5. He highlights that the computer is for researchers, scientists, and students working with AI models, and it allows them to test models locally before deploying them in larger environments.
The show then shifts to self-driving vehicles and Aurora's partnership with Nvidia to use its Drive OS system in long-haul truckers. David explains the importance of Lidar technology in enabling the trucks to process information more quickly and accurately.
Nvidia also introduced two new AI eras: Agentic AI and Physical AI. Agentic AI aims to create models that act rather than just tell, and Physical AI is about technology with an understanding of the real world. Nvidia's Cosmos platform takes text, images, and videos to generate realistic visualizations for developers of autonomous hardware, robots, and vehicles.
In a broad sense, David sees a multitude of opportunities in Nvidia's announcements and thinks the company is taking the right steps in advancing AI technologies. However, Wall Street seemed to be unimpressed by Jensen Huang's keynote, with shares falling by 5-7% post-speech.
Transitioning to PayPal, Mary welcomes Jason to the show and discusses his thoughts on the company since Alex Chris took over as CEO in September 2023. Jason emphasizes that Chris has made progress in getting back to PayPal's core business, focusing on the entire transaction life cycle for the company and introducing express checkout and recurring payments features.
They delve into the enumeroius opportunities and challenges paypal faces in the payments industry. Paypal has 200 million monthly active users and a vast network of consumers and merchants. However, the competition is fierce, with companies like Apple Pay and Zell also vying for market share.
Jason points out that two-sided networks like PayPal's are essential to success, providing value to both consumers and merchants. Paypal is leveraging partnerships with entities like Shopify, Visa, and Mastercard to expand its presence and provide a seamless user experience.
However, a recent issue involving the browser extension Honey has brought scrutiny to PayPal. The company has been accused of being a scam and stealing money from influencers who promote the product. Jason highlights that this situation will not likely have a lasting impact on PayPal, as the deal was mainly cash, and Honey's value was questionable from the beginning.
Enrichment Data:1. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI start-up, is training advanced models at a fraction of the cost incurred by US giants like OpenAI, potentially reducing reliance on Nvidia's GPUs.[1][3]2. Jensen Huang's comments on the commercial viability of quantum computing in 15 to 30 years has sent shockwaves through the quantum computing industry, causing shares of leading companies to plummet.[2]3. There is a question of how much AI hardware the market can absorb, and new entrants in AI chip design could challenge Nvidia's market share.[4]4. Nvidia is at the forefront of multi-trillion-dollar opportunities in AI, particularly in areas like "Agentic AI" and "physical AI," which could fundamentally reshape industries and create new economic growth.[4]5. Nvidia is working to democratize AI by making it accessible to all through simplified workflows and lower costs. Tools like Project DIGITS, NEMO, and Blackwell GPUs aim to empower individual creators and teams to harness the full potential of AI.[5]6. In healthcare, Nvidia is partnering with industry giants to develop AI solutions that streamline clinical trials, enhance diagnostics, and accelerate medical treatment development.[1]7. D-Wave Quantum and IonQ defend their industry against Huang's remarks about quantum computing.[2]
[1] Nvidia's dominance in AI: https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/8/23407158/cves-nvidia-ai-supercomputer-jensen-huang-ai-done-business[2] Quantum computing impact: https://www.crn.com/news/hardware/nvidias-jensen-huang-says-commercial-quantum-computing-15-30-years-away-causing-industry-shock[3] DeepSeek challenge: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/11/ai-startup-deepseek-raises-135-million-to-train-models-cheaply/[4] Market saturation and new entrants: https://www.reuters.com/technology/ai-chip-makers-worry-market-saturation-entirely-new-competitors-2025-02-04/[5] Nvidia's efforts to democratize AI: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-11/ai-in-every-computer
In relation to the discussion on PayPal, Jason mentions that CEO Alex Chriss is focusing on the company's core business and introducing features like express checkout and recurring payments to strengthen its position in the competitive payments industry.
Given Nvidia's various announcements, David highlights the importance of the company's continued support for gaming, even as its data center business surpasses gaming in revenue, to maintain its brand and set standards for video quality.
