As of today, we can call him Dr. Huang.
Just moments ago, NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang appeared in Hong Kong to attend the honorary doctorate conferment ceremony at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
Along with Huang, who received an honorary doctorate in engineering, the recipients included actor Tony Leung, biochemist Professor Michael Levitt, and mathematician Professor David Mumford, each receiving honorary doctorates in their respective fields.
During the ceremony, Huang delivered a speech, showing off his somewhat rusty Mandarin, and specifically mentioned his desire to take a photo with HKUST’s famous landmark “Turkey” – the sundial standing at the center of the university plaza.
Here is Jensen Huang’s full speech, translated by APPSO:
Thank you, Vice-Chancellor, Chairman, Court and Council members, distinguished fellow honorary graduates, honored guests, graduates, ladies and gentlemen, for bestowing upon me this extraordinary honor. I am immensely proud to become an honorary alumnus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
I am delighted to be here today to celebrate this important milestone with all the graduates, marking the beginning of a significant journey in your lives. I also extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the parents and family members who have supported you.
Today is as memorable for them as it is for you. Congratulations to all!
HKUST stands among the world’s leading technology universities and is at the forefront of artificial intelligence and data science research. You are an integral part of China’s significant contribution to open scientific research, driving global AI development.
Hong Kong universities’ AI research papers rank among the most cited globally. Open research is a marvel of modern science and perhaps the highest form of global collaboration – we must work together to protect it.
HKUST emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship, successfully helping develop this region into China’s Greater Bay Area.
Startups are flourishing here, with HKUST alumni founding over 1,800 startups, including 10 unicorn companies and 14 listed companies.
NVIDIA has benefited greatly from this region’s development.
We established roots in China 25 years ago. NVIDIA’s design centers are located in Hong Kong, Pudong, Beijing, and Shenzhen, housing many outstanding HKUST alumni and long-term colleagues who helped me build NVIDIA.
More importantly, they have made outstanding contributions to building China’s technology ecosystem from the very beginning.
Today when I arrived, my colleagues – proud HKUST alumni – specifically reminded me to take a photo with the university’s landmark “Turkey.”
This is an extraordinary moment for your graduation, and it’s also an extraordinary moment for NVIDIA. The AI era has initiated a new computing epoch that will profoundly impact every industry and every field of science.
We have redefined every layer of the computing stack. From software written based on rules and logic to machine learning based on observational data; from code running on CPUs to neural networks processed on GPUs.
Today, the software industry is rapidly adopting machine learning and generative AI, while the hardware industry is working to modernize traditional computing infrastructure worth trillions of dollars.
AI is revolutionizing science.
At the 2018 Supercomputing Conference, I first proposed combining principled approaches with AI to advance scientific computing. Since then, AI and machine learning have integrated into nearly every field of science.
AI is transforming fields from drug development to genomics to climate science by analyzing data, accelerating simulations, controlling experiments in real-time, and building predictive models at incredible scales.
With AI, we can study physical systems at unprecedented scales. AI’s transformative impact has received recognition at the highest levels.
Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work in neural networks. Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, and David Baker received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their breakthrough advances in protein prediction.
These breakthroughs are just the beginning.
Companies worldwide are racing to adopt AI to accelerate innovation and enhance productivity.
In the near future, every team in every organization will work alongside AI agents, from marketing, sales, and supply chain management to chip design and software development.
In heavy industry and manufacturing, robotics investment is rapidly increasing due to breakthrough advances in physical AI. Just as we witnessed rapid progress in cognitive intelligence foundation models, we’re seeing explosive development in physical intelligence foundation models.
As AI transforms every industry, the robotics era is arriving. A new industry will emerge, dedicated to producing and generating AI, similar to how power plants and the electricity industry arose during the last industrial revolution.
From the beginning of the AI era, AI factories and the generation of digital intelligence will become core industries.
Twenty-five years after NVIDIA created the first GPU, we have redefined computing and sparked a new industrial revolution. AI is undoubtedly the most important technology of our time, and possibly the most important technology in human history.
I am thrilled to see so much energy focused on advancing AI science and using AI to advance science at HKUST and throughout China. I am incredibly excited for all the graduates here today.
I wish I could be starting my career at this moment. The entire world is experiencing a reset, and you’re all at the starting line together. An industry is being redefined, and new industries are being created. You now have the necessary tools to advance science across many fields.
Challenges that once seemed insurmountable suddenly appear manageable.
Congratulations on your graduation! Congratulations on taking this extraordinary step! I look forward to many of you joining NVIDIA’s team. Thank you again for this honor and for recognizing the lifetime effort of many of us at NVIDIA.
And please, don’t forget to show me the way to the “Turkey.”