What Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Shared with You.com Founder After Major Investment

New tech startups don’t always capture the attention of industry titans, but You.com founder Richard Socher had the unique opportunity to meet with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Socher’s AI-powered search engine, You.com, recently raised $50 million in Series B funding, with major investors such as Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, and DuckDuckGo. This capital boost has brought the valuation of the search engine challenger to nearly $1 billion, putting it in competition with Google and Yahoo.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi on the Opening Bid podcast, Socher revealed that he had a nearly two-hour discussion with Huang during the investment phase. The conversation touched on a range of topics, including business strategies and history.

"I was incredibly impressed with Jensen," said Socher. He added that while he rarely feels nervous meeting other leaders, he found Huang’s advice invaluable. One key takeaway from their talk was the importance of speed in Nvidia’s early growth and how the company honed its focus on dominating the gaming sector before expanding.

Huang also encouraged Socher to remain focused on You.com's mission to become a strong AI-driven alternative to Google.

This isn’t the first time Socher and Nvidia crossed paths. Back in the early 2010s, Socher’s Stanford research team utilized Nvidia's GPUs, even when the company primarily served the graphics market. At the time, Nvidia was unfamiliar with the team’s goals. "Nvidia was like, 'Who are you? Why do you need our GPUs?'" Socher recalled. Fast forward, and Nvidia GPUs are now a crucial part of AI workloads.

Founded in 1993 by Huang, Nvidia started as a company focused on developing 3D graphics for gaming and multimedia. The company’s breakthrough came six years later with the launch of the graphics processing unit (GPU). In 2012, Nvidia brought AI into focus by introducing AlexNet, a neural network model that demonstrated the power of GPUs in machine learning tasks.

This year, Nvidia expanded its influence by unveiling a new initiative aimed at democratizing generative AI using its cutting-edge GPU technology. Nvidia’s AI chips are seen as having a significant performance edge over competitors like AMD and Intel, a distinction that has led to record-breaking financial results.

In the second quarter of this year, Nvidia saw its sales rise by 122% and earnings grow by 152% year over year. Despite a summer dip due to mixed third-quarter guidance, Nvidia now stands as the third most valuable company globally, with a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, trailing only Microsoft ($3.18 trillion) and Apple ($3.46 trillion), according to Yahoo Finance data.

Nvidia’s stock has soared 145% year-to-date, outpacing the Nasdaq Composite's 18% gain, further cementing its status as a leader in both AI and tech innovation.