The Thinking Machine
Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Publishing:10th Apr '25
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 10th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The riveting account of Nvidia, the tech company that has exploded in value for its artificial intelligence computing hardware, and Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s charismatic, uncompromising CEO.
‘Superb’ SEBASTIAN MALLABY
‘A page-turning biography’ DAVID EPSTEIN
‘Exceptional reporting’ RAY KURZWEIL
In June of 2024, spurred by the frenzy of investment following the launch of ChatGPT, and thirty-one years after its founding in a Denny’s restaurant, Nvidia became the most-valuable corporation on Earth. In The Thinking Machine, acclaimed journalist Stephen Witt recounts the unlikely story of how a manufacturer of video game components shocked Silicon Valley by conquering the market for AI hardware, and in the process re-invented the computer.
Essential to Nvidia’s meteoric success is its visionary CEO Jensen Huang, who more than a decade ago, on the basis of a few promising scientific results, bet his entire company on AI. Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Witt documents for the first time the company’s epic rise and its iconoclastic CEO, who emerges as a compelling, single-minded, and ferocious leader, and now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.
The Thinking Machine is the story of how Nvidia evolved from providing components for circuit boards to supplying hundred-million dollar supercomputers. It is the story of a determined entrepreneur who defied Wall Street to push his radical vision for computing, in the process becoming one of the wealthiest men alive. It is the story of a revolution in computer architecture, and the small group of renegade engineers who made it happen. And it’s the story of our awesome and terrifying AI future, which Huang has billed as the 'next industrial revolution', as a new kind of microchip unlocks hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, self-driving cars, and new movies, art, and books, generated on command.
Gripping and brilliantly told, this is the amazing story of the improbable origins of one of the most important technologies of our times * Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave and CEO of Microsoft AI *
The AI revolution that defines this decade, and probably this century, rests on the shoulders of a shockingly small number of geniuses; and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is prominent among them. Witt’s superb portrait is both entertaining and disquieting, capturing an indispensable, elusive, and isolated man: the hardware wizard behind the machines that are careering toward something very much like sentience -- Sebastian Mallaby, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Law
Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world -- David Epstein, author of Range
The Thinking Machine brilliantly captures the riveting, unlikely story of Jensen Huang’s Nvidia—a company driving the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and humanity's inevitable merger with technology. Stephen Witt’s exceptional reporting offers a rare glimpse into the pioneers driving humanity’s leap toward an infinite future -- Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Nearer
Before reading The Thinking Machine, I didn't understand just how much the rise of Jensen Huang and Nvidia explains the sudden explosion of artificial intelligence. Stephen Witt’s sweeping narrative offers a roadmap to the various forces rapidly changing our lives, tucked into the wild insider story of how one of our strangest and most singular entrepreneurs—in an era chock full of them—not only built a remarkable company but also helped to usher in our brave new world -- Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser
PRAISE FOR HOW MUSIC GOT FREE
Terrific, timely, informative ... [Witt's] research and storytelling are exemplary ... How Music Got Free stands comparison to The Social Network
Incredible, possibly canonical ... A story that's too bizarre to make up, but needed to be told ... How Music Got Free is one of the most gripping investigative books of the year * Vice *
You need to get hold of Stephen Witt's jaundiced, whip-smart, superbly report and indispensable How Music Got Free * Washington Post *
Closely reported and brilliantly written ... Highly entertaining * Guardian *
Gripping and brilliantly told, this is the amazing story of the improbable origins of one of the most important technologies of our times * Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave and CEO of Microsoft AI *
The AI revolution that defines this decade, and probably this century, rests on the shoulders of a shockingly small number of geniuses; and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is prominent among them. Witt’s superb portrait is both entertaining and disquieting, capturing an indispensable, elusive, and isolated man: the hardware wizard behind the machines that are careering toward something very much like sentience -- Sebastian Mallaby, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Law
Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world -- David Epstein, author of Range
The Thinking Machine brilliantly captures the riveting, unlikely story of Jensen Huang’s Nvidia—a company driving the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and humanity's inevitable merger with technology. Stephen Witt’s exceptional reporting offers a rare glimpse into the pioneers driving humanity’s leap toward an infinite future -- Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Nearer
Before reading The Thinking Machine, I didn't understand just how much the rise of Jensen Huang and Nvidia explains the sudden explosion of artificial intelligence. Stephen Witt’s sweeping narrative offers a roadmap to the various forces rapidly changing our lives, tucked into the wild insider story of how one of our strangest and most singular entrepreneurs—in an era chock full of them—not only built a remarkable company but also helped to usher in our brave new world -- Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser
PRAISE FOR HOW MUSIC GOT FREE
Terrific, timely, informative ... [Witt's] research and storytelling are exemplary ... How Music Got Free stands comparison to The Social Network
Incredible, possibly canonical ... A story that's too bizarre to make up, but needed to be told ... How Music Got Free is one of the most gripping investigative books of the year * Vice *
You need to get hold of Stephen Witt's jaundiced, whip-smart, superbly report and indispensable How Music Got Free * Washington Post *
Closely reported and brilliantly written ... Highly entertaining * Guardian *
ISBN: 9781847928276
Dimensions: 240mm x 156mm x 28mm
Weight: 500g
288 pages