Bloomberg对话黄仁勋：AI行业责任与继任者问题

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So, talk about timing. It was just about one month ago that Bloomberg's Emily Chang was shooting an episode of The Circuit for Bloomberg Originals. This particular episode was about none other than Jensen Wong, talking to him over four days as he traveled to four cities. We are delighted to have with us the host and executive producer of the circuit with Emily Chang. Joining us now from the Bloomberg News San Francisco bureau.

Emily's episode with Jensen coming out this evening. Emily, great to have you here with Tim and me. Fortuitous your time uh with Jensen. I can only imagine um everything that's been going through your head over the last week or so. His world dramatically changing as you know um just in the last 5 days. Take us back though about one month ago, what you set out to do for the circuit. um what you did do, what you saw, and your impression of Jensen and it all.

Well, Carol, we did what now appears to be the last big interview that Jensen Hang will ever do as CEO and it was peak Jensen sanity. I mean, we saw the crowds where he was holding court with developers, with world leaders, with tech CEOs, with even the press. You had lines down the block and around the corner just to see him. And of course that term genanity has now taken on a different meaning and and you can look at his comments um through a different lens now.

I mean it it it it's hard to believe that this man who was really the chief salesman for the N AI industry its biggest optimist its biggest booster has been humbled in this way.

Chief salesman biggest booster he's been called the central banker of the AI ecosystem. Emily, he's a one-of-a-kind leader. I think a lot of people would argue. Is he replaceable?

Well, Nvidia will definitely survive. Uh, Jensen not being at the helm, but the question is if it can thrive in the same way. Obviously, they do have incredible technology. They have, you know, what what are widely believed to be the best AI chips in the industry. So, that's saying something. But of course, this is a guy who was until today inseparable from the company he had built. He is the only person who has led this company for 33 years.

And I will say following him through Europe and seeing the way he interacted with world leaders in different countries, he is fundamental to the relationships with not just the big AI CEOs that we've been talking about, but countries and governments around the world that are also um buying in Nvidia technology and betting big on AI and making decisions now about how to build that they that AI and on on and you know what chips to build it with.

And so, um, yes, uh, Nvidia is going to survive this, but it's going to be a very different company. I mean, we've all talked about how he ran this as a very flat organization with like 60 direct reports, and there is no clear successor.

You know, Emily, on on that, it sounds like Jensen certainly knew his own weight, his own voice, his own position, how much carried, how much it carried, not just, you know, again, at the company, but more broadly in the AI story in the tech industry. Here's we just want to play a snippet of the interview. Here's what he told you last month.

You know, I think you have to hold yourself responsible. You have you have agency. You're the CEO of the company for God's sakes. Um you have to have high standards and expectations. I'm responsible for an entire industry. Um and so I think the the pressure of being the CEO is high and it's supposed to be high. It shouldn't be an it should not be an easy job. Uh it shouldn't be a job that you take for granted.

That of course was Jensen Wong with Emily. Emily, you know, you hear all that him talking about responsibility, a job not to be taken for granted in what, as you said, was his last interview, major interview as CEO of the company. You think what? You know, that was in response to a question about succession. And we knew going into this interview that there was and there has been no clear successor. And so many investors have been saying for a long time, how can a $5 trillion company, now a $4 trillion company, not have a succession plan or not have a publicly disclosed succession plan?

And what he said is, I really hope this person is at the company. I asked a question about his daughter, specifically Madison Hang, who was on this trip with him, and there have been many reports that she was in line to be his replacement. And you know, he he he went he started to go on and on about the responsibilities and the pressures of the job. And obviously now you look at those comments

through a different lens. And you know, it's pretty incredible that we were able to get him on the record when who would have known that he wouldn't be in the job four weeks later.

You know, you mentioned Madison Hang, one of his children who is at NVIDIA, also son-in-law there. His son is there as well. What were your interactions with with her on this on this trip that you did for this episode of the circuit that that comes out tonight? What did you learn about her?

I learned that she's by his side a lot. I mean, she was with him everywhere we went. There were moments where the press corps was waiting outside for Jensen and she sort of realized we were getting antsy and it was cold and we hadn't eaten and she had the caterers bring out food and drink. Um there was a moment during a presser where he couldn't remember the name of a company he wanted to talk about and he was like Madison Madison where is she and and she came up and she knew exactly um the company that he wanted to mention.

I mean she's

my understanding very present very pervasive at the company. She hasn't as far as we've heard today been been seen since this all happened. And as you mentioned, Tim, his whole family is very intertwined with this organization. So that's another thing that's going to have to be dealt with and speaks to the very major governance questions that this board is going to be dealing with.

Speaking of governance questions or just investigations in general, US uh Justice Emily probing Alice Wong, the woman US officials suspect as a possible spy targeting uh Jensen Wong. Um and also any efforts maybe involved to smuggle products made by super micro to China. I mean there's just so many different angles here. You did though ask him more broadly about the AI industry and regulation and he talked about that the role of governments and also really the role and the responsibility of companies themselves.

I think it's very appropriate and the reason for that is this. Before we expect governments and uh third parties to regulate us, we should hold ourselves to the highest possible responsibilities, standards, accountability. The structure that was described is very similar to the way that safety systems are internally audited and externally audited by many industries. Even if we would have had a government regulation and or international government regulation, who would do the auditing if we didn't have the ecosystem of companies that have the capability to do so?

All right, Emily, again, the his use of the word accountability strikes us differently today. No doubt about it. But we could we could parse everything he says and and look at it differently today. Um I it is interesting about though accountability of of governments of companies themselves to police themselves also at a time when he was certainly pushing for China to have you know access to the most advanced Nvidia chips like he believed in that as well.

So it's it's interesting how he juggled kind of the parameters that needed to be kind of around the AI industry,

right? I mean, you know, he's been saying the same thing for months, if not years, that we don't need more regulation. We already have the regulation we need to deal with these AI companies. He repeated the the same things he's been saying a