When Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia Corp., stood earlier than greater than 500 followers gathered at COEX in Seoul on Oct. 30 to rejoice the twenty fifth anniversary of the GeForce GPU’s Korean launch, he opened his speech with an sudden confession.
“In 1996, I acquired a letter from Korea for the primary time in my life,” Huang stated. “It was fantastically written – from somebody I didn’t know.”
That letter, he revealed, was despatched by the late Lee Kun-hee, the legendary chairman of Samsung Electronics, whose phrases would profoundly form each Huang’s life and the way forward for the know-how trade. Standing beside Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung, Huang instructed the viewers, “That letter is the explanation I got here to Korea.”
Jay Y. Lee then turned to the gang and added softly, “The letter was written by my father.” The viewers erupted into applause – a second that bridged generations of visionaries and symbolized how a single thought, conceived practically three a long time in the past, helped set the inspiration for the digital period.
A VISION FAR AHEAD OF ITS TIME
When Lee’s letter was written in 1996, Korea’s digital panorama was nothing like in the present day. The web was gradual and text-based, restricted to dial-up on-line service, whereas PCs lacked the ability to run on-line video games.
But Lee envisioned a future the place broadband networks would join the nation, video video games would turn into a cultural and industrial power, and the world would in the future collect for a online game Olympics. It was a imaginative and prescient far forward of its time – one which few may comprehend.
Lee’s foresight wasn’t restricted to know-how. His 1993 Frankfurt Declaration, remembered for the phrase “Change all the pieces besides your spouse and youngsters,” turned the rallying cry for Samsung’s transformation into a worldwide model.
He additionally believed that “one genius can feed 100,000 individuals,” underscoring his conviction that expertise and creativity would outline the businesses of the longer term. The letter to a younger, comparatively unknown Jensen Huang, who had simply based Nvidia a number of years earlier, mirrored that very same philosophy: investing in brilliance earlier than the world may see it.
A VISION REALIZED
Three a long time later, Lee’s dream has been realized. The world’s first graphics processing unit (GPU), the GeForce 256, was born by means of the synergy of Samsung’s reminiscence know-how and Nvidia’s graphics innovation.
Korea’s rollout of high-speed web remodeled the nation’s digital tradition, spawning the PC bang phenomenon and giving rise to e-sports. In 2000, with Samsung’s sponsorship, the World Cyber Video games (WCG) turned a worldwide occasion.
Huang mirrored on this legacy on the Seoul occasion, saying, “With out Korea’s PC bang (web café) tradition and e-sports, there can be no Nvidia as we all know it in the present day.”
