Nvidia Computers Failed to Sell, Bought by Elon Musk, and the AI Revolution Began

KOMPAS.com - Long before the world was scrambling for AI chips as it is today, Nvidia actually went through difficult times in marketing its first AI machine.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, recently revealed a surprising fact: their first AI supercomputer, the DGX-1, was initially completely ignored by the market.

In a discussion on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Jensen opened up about the history behind Nvidia’s success today.

He recounted how Nvidia spent billions of dollars on research and development for its first AI system. However, when the product was ready to be marketed, the world’s response was silence.

“When I announced the DGX-1, there wasn’t a single person in the world who wanted it,” Jensen said ruefully.

He continued, “I didn’t get a single purchase order. No one wanted to buy it. No one wanted to be part of (the project).”

At that time, in 2016, Musk was not yet the owner of X (Twitter) as he is now, but he was leading Tesla and co-founding a small non-profit organization called OpenAI.

“He (Elon) said, ‘You know, I have a company that I think could really use this tool,’” Jensen recalled, quoting Musk.

Elon explained that he had a non-profit AI company that desperately needed massive computing power. Without hesitation, Jensen immediately welcomed his “first customer” with great enthusiasm.

Because the first unit was so valuable, Jensen didn’t send it via a courier service. He wrapped the DGX-1 supercomputer himself, put it in his car, and drove it to Elon Musk’s office.

“I wrapped one unit, I drove to San Francisco, and I delivered it directly to Elon in 2016,” Jensen said, as quoted by KompasTekno from Wccftech.

This handover of the DGX-1 unit then became a turning point in the history of modern technology. The machine delivered by Jensen was used by the OpenAI team to train their early AI models.