Key Takeaways Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, 62, recently said that he works seven days a week, in a “state of anxiety” that Nvidia could go out of business.
Nvidia reported record revenue of $57 billion for its third quarter last month.
By contrast, other tech CEOs, like Linear’s Karri Saarinen, advocate for more work-life balance.
Nvidia may be the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of $4.4 trillion at the time of writing, but that hasn’t stopped CEO Jensen Huang from working seven days a week. The co-founder and CEO recently disclosed that he still and lives in a constant “state of anxiety” driven by fear of the company going bankrupt.
In an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which aired earlier this week, Huang said he has described Nvidia as being “30 days from going out of business” for over three decades and that his feeling of insecurity “doesn’t leave.”
“To live on fumes at all times,” Huang said. “The feeling, no different from the feeling I had this morning when I woke up: ‘You’re going to be out of business soon.'”
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Huang said the feeling “doesn’t change” even though Nvidia currently tops the charts in market value and reported record revenue of $57 billion for its third quarter last month. “The sense of vulnerability, the sense of uncertainty, the sense of insecurity — it doesn’t leave you,” he said.
Jensen Huang. Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993, immediately stepping into the role of CEO, a position he has now held for 32 years. The company started as a graphics card manufacturer, but has recently pivoted to creating AI chips that power the efforts of other tech giants, like Microsoft, OpenAI and Meta. In October, Nvidia briefly became the first company in history to achieve a $5 trillion market capitalization.
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