2023年5 月 27 日，美國英偉達（Nvidia）公司創始人黃仁勳先生受邀到位於中國臺北的臺灣大學參加2023年的畢業典禮，並擔任典禮致詞嘉賓。

在畢業演講中，黃仁勳透露了對AI（人工智慧）未來的最新看法，並向臺大畢業生分享了三個故事（也是英偉達發展歷程中的3個關鍵轉折點），回述當年創立英偉達的辛苦，他說創業一路走來，「充滿羞辱的失敗」，公司還差點倒閉。他藉此勉勵畢業生，別害怕承認錯誤或尋求協助、願景實現前忍受痛苦，以及決定取捨或放棄，是能否成功的核心關鍵。

黃仁勳在演講最後部分，勉勵畢業生們，不論是為了追逐食物而跑，或不被他人當作食物而跑，都要儘量保持奔跑，別緩步前進。

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed faculty members, distinguished guests, proud parents. And above all, the 2023 graduating class of National Taiwan University:

Today is a very special day for you, a dream come true for your parents. You should be moving out soon. It is surely a day of pride and joy. Your parents have made sacrifices to see you on this day. My parents and my brother are also here. Let's show all of our grandparents, many of them are here, our appreciation.

I came to NTU for the first time over a decade ago. Dr. Chang invited me to visit his computational physics lab. As I recall, his son, based in Silicon Valley, learned of Nvidia's CUDA invention and recommended his father utilize it for his quantum physics simulations. When I arrived, he opened the door to show me what he had made. NVIDIA GeForce gaming cards filled the room, plugged into open PC motherboards. Dr. Chang had built a pure homemade supercomputer, the Taiwanese way, out of gaming graphics cards. And he started an early example of Nvidia Journey. And he said to me, "Mr. Huang, because of your work, I can do my life's work in my lifetime." Those words touched me to this day, and perfectly captured our company's purpose. Our company's purpose helps the Einsteins and DaVincis of our time do their life's work. I am so happy to be back at NTU, so happy to be back at your commencement address.

The world was simpler in Oregon when I graduated from Oregon State University. TVs were not flat yet. There was no cable television or MTV. And the words "mobile" and "phone" didn't go together.

The year was 1984, the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh launched the PC revolution and started the software industry that we know today. You enter a far more complex world with geopolitical and social changes, and environmental changes and challenges. Surrounded by technology, we are now perpetually connected and immersed in a digital world that parallels the real world. Cars are starting to drive by themselves. Forty years after the computer industry created the home PC, we invented artificial intelligence. Like software that automatically drives a car, or studies X-ray images, AI software has opened the doors to computers to automate tasks for the world's largest multi-trillion-dollar industries: health care, financial services transportation, and manufacturing.

AI has opened immense opportunities; agile companies will take advantage of AI and boost their position. Companies less so will perish. Entrepreneurs, many of them here today, will start new companies, and like in every computing era before, create new industries. AI will create new jobs that didn't exist before, like data engineering, prompt engineering, AI factory operation, and AI safety engineers. These are jobs that never existed before. Automated tasks will obsolete some jobs. And for sure, AI will change every job, supercharging the performance of programmers, designers, artists, and manufacturing planners.

Just as every generation before you embraced technologies, every company and you must learn to take advantage of AI, and do amazing things AI copilot by your side. While some worry that AI may take their jobs, someone who is an expert with AI will. We are at the beginning of a major technology revolution, like PC, Internet, mobile, and cloud. And AI is far more fundamental because every computing layer has been reinvented from how we write software to how it's processed. AI has reinvented computing from the ground up.

In every way, this is a rebirth of the computer industry and a golden opportunity for companies of Taiwan. You are the foundation and bedrock of the computer industry. Within the next decade, our industry will replace over a trillion dollars of the world's traditional computers with new accelerated AI computers.

My journey started 40 years before yours. 1984 was a perfect year to graduate. I predict that 2023 will be as well. What can I tell you as you begin your journey? Today is the most successful day of your life so far. You're graduating from the National Taiwan University. I was also successful until I started Nvidia. I experienced failures. Great big ones, all humiliating and embarrassing. Many nearly doomed us. Let me tell you three Nvidia stories that defined us today.

Almost out of businesses

We founded Nvidia to create accelerated computing. Our first application was 3D graphics for PC gaming. We invented an unconventional 3D approach called forward texture mapping and curves. Our approach was at a substantially lower cost. We won a contract with Sega to build their game console which attracted games for our platform and funded our company.

After one year of development, we realized our architecture was the wrong strategy. It was technically poor and Microsoft was about to announce Windows 95 3D based on inverse texture mapping and triangles. Many companies were already working on 3D chips to support the standard. If we completed Sega's game console, we would have built inferior technology, be incompatible with Windows, and be too far behind to catch up. But we would be out of money if we didn't finish the contract. Either way, we would be out of business.

I contacted the CEO of Sega and explained that our invention was the wrong approach that Sega should find another partner, that we could not complete the contract and the console. We had to stop. But I needed Sega to pay us or Nvidia would be out of business. I was embarrassed to ask. Irimajiri-san, the CEO of Sega, to his credit and my amazement, agreed. His understanding and generosity gave us six months to live. With that, we built Riva 128 just as we were running out of money. The Riva 128 shocked the young 3D market, put us on the map, and saved the company. Strong demand for our chip led me back to Taiwan, after leaving at the age of 4, to meet Morris Chang at TSMC and start a partnership that has lasted 25 years.

Confronting our mistake, and, with humility, asking for help, saved Nvidia. These traits are the hardest for the brightest and most successful like yourself.

The legend of CUDA

In 2007, we announced CUDA GPU accelerated computing. Our aspiration was for CUDA to become a programming model that boosts applications from scientific computing, to physics simulations and image processing. Creating a new computing model is incredibly hard and rarely done in history. The CPU computing model has been standard for 60 years since the IBM System 360. CUDA needed developers to write out applications and to demonstrate the benefits of the GPU. Developers needed a large installed base, and a large CUDA installed base needed customers buying new applications. So to solve the chicken or egg problem, we used GeForce GPU, our gaming GPU, which already had a large market of gamers, to build the installed base.

But the added cost of CUDA was very high. Nvidia's profits took a huge hit. For many years, our market cap hovered just below – just above – $1 billion. We suffered for many years. Our shareholders were skeptical of CUDA and preferred we focused on improving profitability. But we persevered. We believed the time for accelerated computing would come. We created a conference called GTC and promoted CUDA tirelessly worldwide.

Then, the applications came: seismic processing, CT reconstruction, molecular dynamics, particle physics, fluid dynamics, and image processing. One science domain after another, they came. We've worked with each developer to write their algorithms and achieved incredible speed-ups. Then, in 2012, AI researchers discovered CUDA. The famous AlexNet, trained on GeForce GTX 580, started the Big Bang of AI.

Fortunately, we realized the potential of deep learning as a whole new software approach and turned every aspect of our company to advance this new field. We risked everything to pursue deep learning. A decade later, the AI revolution started. Nvidia is the engine of AI developers worldwide. We invented CUDA and pioneered accelerated computing and AI. But the journey forged our corporate character to endure the pain and suffering that is always needed to realize a vision.

Strategic retreat from phone market

One more story. In 2010, Google aimed to develop Android into a mobile computer with excellent graphics. The phone industry had chip companies with modem expertise and Nvidia's computing and graphics expertise made us an ideal partner to help build Android. And so we entered the mobile chip market. We were instantly successful and our business and stock price surged. The competition quickly swarmed. Modem chip makers were learning how to build computer chips, and we were learning how to build modems. The phone market is huge. We could fight for share. Instead, we made a hard decision, and we sacrificed the market. Nvidia's mission is to build computers that solve problems that ordinary computers cannot. We should dedicate ourselves to realizing our vision and to making a unique contribution. Our strategic retreat paid off. By leaving the phone market, we opened our minds to invent a new one. We imagined creating a new type of computer for robotic computerswith neural network processors and safety architectures that run AI algorithms.

We entered the robotics market and we now have billions of dollars of automotive and robotics business, and starting a new industry. Retreat does not come easily to the brightest and most successful people like yourselves. And yet, strategic retreat and sacrifice, deciding what to give up, is at the core, the very core, of success. Class of 2023, you're about to go into a world witnessing great change. And just as I was with the PC and chip revolution, you are at beginning, at the starting line, of AI. Every industry will be revolutionized. Ready for new ideas: your ideas. In 40 years, we created the PC, the Internet, mobile, cloud, and now the AI era. What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it like we did. Run. Don't walk. Remember: either you're running for food or you are running from being food.

(In Chinese: I hope this part can be translated into Chinese so that everyone can understand). Either you're running from food, or you are running from becoming food!

And oftentimes, you can't tell which. Either way, run. And for your journey, take along some of my learnings, that you will have the humility to confront failure, admit a mistake, and ask for help. You will endure pain and suffering needed to realize your dreams. And you will make sacrifices to dedicate yourself to a life of purpose and doing your life's work. Class of 2023, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to each one of you!

（臺語）大家好，我今天本來想跟你們說臺語，但是⋯⋯我越想越緊張。我在美國長大的，所以我的臺語不是很標準，所以我今天跟你們說英文好不好？(臺下掌聲)

Okay，那我們開始吧！

（英語）各位貴賓、各位家長，2023 年的臺大畢業生，大家好！

今天是你們的特別日子，也是夢想成真的日子——屬於你們父母的，你們要趕快離家。

今天是榮耀的日子，父母親犧牲了他們自己，成就了你們。我爸爸媽媽在這，我哥哥也在這，讓我們向養育我們的父母親展現我們的感謝。

（右起）黃仁勳的母親、父親及哥哥。

十年前我第一次來臺大，陳教授邀請我來看他的物理實驗室。我記得他的兒子在矽谷得知了 Nvidia 發明的 CUDA（Compute Unified Device Architecture，統一計算架構）技術，建議陳教授在量子物理模擬使用它。 

當我抵達的時候，他秀給我看他創造的東西：整個房間的 Nvidia 遊戲顯示卡，插在開放式電腦的主機板上，金屬架上都是散熱用的大同電扇。

他以臺灣人的方式，用遊戲顯示卡做了一個超級電腦。他在這裡，做了早期Nvidia JOURNEY 示範。他很驕傲，他說：“黃先生，因為你的關係，我可以完成我的事業。”

他說的那些話至今仍感動我，完美詮釋了我們公司的價值：幫助這個時代的愛因斯坦與達文西完成他們的事業。

我很高興能再次回到臺大，擔任你們的致詞嘉賓。

給畢業生們： 

你們所處的年代很複雜，卻也是你們的機會！

當我從俄勒岡州立大學畢業時，世界還比較簡單。電視還很大一臺，沒有無線電視跟 MTV、沒有手機和行動電話。那是 1994 年，IBM 個人電腦跟 MAC麥金塔開始了個人電腦革命。開始日後晶片與運算程式的發展。 

你們正處在的世界更復雜，面臨著地緣政治、社會和環境上的變化和挑戰，被科技包圍著。我們處於一個永遠連線和沉浸的資料世界，與現實世界平行存在。在 40 年前，當電腦產業創造了家用 PC，持續研究 AI 技術，我們的運算程式駕駛著汽車、或研讀 X 光片影像。AI 為電腦自動化開啟了大門，其服務涵蓋了世界最大的兆級產業：健康照護、金融服務、運輸與製造產業。

AI 為我們帶來了巨大的機遇，反應敏捷的企業將利用 AI 技術提升競爭力，而未能善用 AI 的企業將面臨衰退。很多企業家，包含今天在場的許多人，未來將會開創新公司。 

如同過去的每個計算機時代能創造新的產業，AI 也創造了以前不存在的新 工作機會，像是：資料工程師、詠唱工程師、AI 工廠操作員和 AI 安全工程師等，這些工作以前從未存在過。 

自動化工作將淘汰一些工作，並且毫無疑問的，AI 會改變每一個工作，大幅 加強程式設計師、設計師、藝術家、行銷人員和製造計劃者的工作表現。就像在你們之前的每個世代，擁抱科技以獲得成功。每個公司與你必須學會利 用 AI 的優勢，在 AI 的幫助下做出驚人成就。

有些人擔心 AI 可能會搶走你的工作，有些人可能會讓 AI 發展出自我意志。

我們正處於一個新領域的開始，就像個人電腦、網路、移動裝置與雲端技術一樣。但是 AI 的影響更為根本，每個運算層面都會被重新改寫。它改變了我們撰寫軟體的方式、執行軟體的方式。 

從各方面來看，這是電腦產業的再生契機，對於臺灣企業而言更是一個黃金機遇。你們正是這個產業的重要基石。

在下個十年，我們的產業將使用新型AI 電腦取代價值上兆美元的傳統電腦。 

我的旅程始於你們 40 年之前，1984 年是一個完美的畢業年份，我預測 2023年也將如此。我能告訴你什麼呢？今天是迄今為止你們最成功的一天，你們從臺大畢業了，我也曾經成功過。

在我創辦了 Nvidia 前，我經歷過失敗，而 且是大失敗，說起來令人恥辱和尷尬，甚至幾乎讓我們走向毀滅。

讓我給你們講 3 個故事，這些故事定義了 Nvidia 今天的樣貌。 

1、

坦誠面對錯誤，謙卑尋求幫助

是聰明、成功人士最難學會的

我們創辦 Nvidia 是為了創造加速運算技術。我們的第一個應用是用於個人電腦遊戲的 3D 圖形，我們發明了一種非傳統的前向紋理處理技術，而且成本相對低廉。我們贏得了與 SEGA 建造遊戲主機的合約。這吸引了遊戲開發商用我們的平臺開發遊戲，並提供我們公司資金。

但經過了一年的開發期程，我們意識到我們設計的架構是錯誤策略，從技術端來看是不合格的。而與此同時，微軟即將宣佈基於反向紋理對映和三角形的 Windows 95 Direct3D。這代表如果我們完成了 SEGA 的遊戲機，我們將會創造出與 Windows 不相容的產品；但如果我們不完成這個合約，我們就會破產。無論如何，我們都會面臨倒閉的命運。 

我聯絡了SEGA 執行長，向他解釋我們的發明是錯誤的，我們無法完成合約以及遊戲主機，並建議 SEGA 尋找其他合作伙伴。我對他說：“我們必須停下來。”

但我需要 SEGA 全額支付我們的費用，否則 Nvidia 將無法繼續經營。

我很難為情的向 SEGA 執行長生提出這個要求，但令我驚訝的是，他同意了。

他的理解和慷慨讓我們多活了 3 個月，在那段時間，我們建造了 Riva 128，就在我們差點沒錢時，Riva 128 震撼了新興的 3D 市場，讓我們開始受到關注，也拯救了公司營運。 

市場對我們的晶片需求旺盛，讓我從 4 歲離開臺灣後又回到了臺灣。我與臺積電的張忠謀先生會面，並開始一段持續 25 年的合作關係。

我們坦誠面對錯誤、謙卑的尋求幫助，拯救 Nvidia 的存續。這些特質對於像你們這樣最聰明、最成功的人而言，是最難養成的。

2、

追求願景的艱苦過程 

塑造我們的品格

在 2007 年，我們宣佈了 CUDA GPU 加速計算技術，我們的期望是讓 CUDA成為一個程式設計模型，在科學運算、物理模擬到影像處理方面，都能提升應用程式的效能。 

建立一個全新的運算模型非常困難，且在歷史上實屬罕見。自從 IBM System360 以來，CPU 的運算模型已經成為標準已有 60 年的時間。CUDA 需要開發人員撰寫應用程式，並展示 GPU 的優勢；開發人員需要一個大型的使用者基礎；大型的 CUDA 使用者基礎，需要市場上有人購買新的應用程式。

因此，為了解決先有雞還是先有蛋的問題。

我們利用我們的遊戲顯示卡 GPU GeForce，它已經擁有龐大的遊戲市場，以建 立使用者基礎。但 CUDA 的成本非常高，Nvidia 的利潤在多年來遭受巨大的打擊，我們的市值僅僅維持在 10 億美元上下。我們多年的低迷表現，讓股 東們對 CUDA 持懷疑態度，並希望我們專注於提高盈利能力。

但我們堅持下來，我們相信加速運算的時代將會到來，我們建立了一個名為GTC 的會議，並在全球不辭辛勞的推廣 CUDA 技術。然後 CT 重建、分子動力學、粒子物理學、流體動力學和影像處理等應用程式開始大量出現，我們的開發人員撰寫演算法，並加快了晶片運算速度。

2014 年，Alex 在我們的 GPU 上進行了訓練，開啟 AI 的大爆炸，幸運的是，我們意識到了深度學習的潛力，我們冒著一切風險去追求深度學習。多年後，AI 革命開始了，Nvidia 成為了推動引擎。

我們為 AI 發明了 CUDA，這個旅程鍛造了我們的品格，承受痛苦和苦難，是在追求願景的路上必經之痛。 

3、

學會放棄是邁向成功的核心關鍵 

再講一個故事，在 2010 年，Google 將 Android 系統打造成出色圖形的平臺，而手機行業也有調變解調器的晶片公司。Nvidia 優秀的運算能力，讓 Nvidia成為 Android 系統良好的合作伙伴。我們取得成功、股價飆升，但競爭對手也很快就湧入，調變解調器製造商們也在學習如何生產運算晶片，而我們卻 在學習調變解調器。

因為手機市場龐大，我們能搶佔市佔率。然而，我們卻做出艱難的決定，放棄這塊市場。因為 Nvidia 的使命，是創造出能解決“普通電腦解決的問題” 的電腦，我們應該專注在願景上，發揮我們的獨特貢獻。

我們的放棄獲得了回報，我們創造了一個新的市場——機器人技術，擁有神經網路處理器和執行 AI 演算法的安全架構。

當時，這還是個看不見規模的市場。從巨大的從手機市場撤退，再創造一個不知道市場規模的機器人市場。然而，現在的我們擁有數十億美元的自動駕駛、機器人技術的事業，也開創一個新的產業。

“撤退”對像你們如此聰明且成功的人來說並不容易。然而，戰略性的撤退、犧牲、決定放棄什麼是成功的核心，非常關鍵的核心。 

跑吧！無論如何都要保持著奔跑！

2023 年畢業的同學們，你們即將進入一個正在經歷巨大變革的世界，就像我畢業時遇到個人電腦和晶片革命時一樣，你們正處於 AI 的起跑線上。每個行業都將被革命、重生，為新思想做好準備 – 你們的思想。

在 40 年的時間裡，我們創造了個人電腦、網路、移動裝置、雲端技術。現在的 AI 時代，你們將創造什麼？

無論是什麼，像我們一樣全力以赴去追求它，跑吧！不要慢慢走。

不論是為了食物而奔跑，或不被他人當做食物而奔跑。你往往無法知道自己正處在哪一種情況，但無論如何，都要保持奔跑。

在你的旅程中，帶上一些我犯過的錯、有過的經驗。希望你們能謙卑的面對失敗，承認錯誤並尋求幫助。你們將承受實現夢想所需的痛苦和苦難，並做出犧牲，致力於有意義的生活，衝刺你們人生的事業。

2023 年畢業的同學們，我致以衷心向你們每一位祝賀。 

加油！