With a market value of over four trillion, Nvidia is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Its CEO works tirelessly despite having fears of failure. In a podcast, he explains why.
What did the Nvidia CEO say? In the podcast on YouTube “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was a guest on December 3, 2025. He spoke with the host Joe Rogan about his workload, his fear of failure, and how it drives him.
Jensen responds to the question of how he feels about leading Nvidia by saying that he:
is always in a state of fear,
and often feels like he has no control.
He goes further into the topic and explains that he is not ambitious, but just wants to keep himself and his company alive. That’s why he works about 7 days a week for around 14 hours a day and doesn’t even know what a work-life balance would be.
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An experience from the 90s is said to have been decisive
Why does the Nvidia CEO have fears? According to Jensen, there was an incident in the late 90s where Nvidia was close to bankruptcy. Since then, he has been permanently convinced of the saying “30 days of going out of business,” as he explains in the podcast. (via YouTube). It means to him that a company goes bankrupt within 30 days unless something changes.
The saying is said by Jensen to refer to an incident in 1996 when Nvidia was under contract with the Japanese game manufacturer Sega. Nvidia had not been able to fulfill the contract properly but still needed the promised money to avoid going bankrupt. Because:
If this order had been canceled, Nvidia would have been dead.
Only by a miracle and direct investments from Sega did Nvidia avoid bankruptcy, Jensen explains.
Since then, the Nvidia CEO has been of the opinion that his company is on the brink of collapse and that he must always give it his all. In contrast, Jensen Huang remains calm in the face of a loss of 600 billion and explains that it is just a misunderstanding.
Fear as a motivator has led Nvidia to success
What does Jensen think about his fear? The CEO of Nvidia is convinced that his fear makes him a better leader.
Because there is nothing wrong with being vulnerable and a leader at the same time. On the contrary, he believes this position allows him to receive valuable feedback and change his strategies if necessary (via YouTube).
This way, he is not a genius who is always right. Nvidia does not need such a person, but rather a real human with flaws.
Even if Nvidia is no longer on the brink of bankruptcy, it is clear to us that there are still problems for the company, for example triggered by a mistake from YouTube. Thousands of users had to watch the wrong stream: Thousands watch the CEO of Nvidia allegedly promoting a crypto scam – What is behind it is typical for 2025
