Nvidia has hired Howard Wright, a former NBA player and Amazon Web Services executive, as vice president of startup ecosystem, reflecting the company’s focus on partnering with startups to drive innovation in the AI computing space. Prior to joining Nvidia, Wright led startups at AWS, oversaw an organization dedicated to helping startups on the company’s cloud platform. Wright brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at C360 Technologies, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm.
Wright’s background as a professional basketball player has shaped his approach to technology, highlighting the importance of focus, dedication, and planning in achieving goals. His hiring at Nvidia demonstrates the company’s commitment to working with startups to develop new applications using GPUs, such as the collaboration with OpenAI on the GPT-3 language model.
Nvidia’s partnership with startups is facilitated through its Inception program, which offers benefits such as AI courses, workshops, and preferential pricing on products. With over 19,000 startup members, Inception is seen as the gold standard for fostering a startup ecosystem. The recent launch of Nvidia Inference Microservices (NIM) is expected to further accelerate startup activity by simplifying AI model inference and integration into applications.
The hiring of Howard Wright underscores Nvidia’s strategic focus on engaging with startups to drive innovation and growth in the AI computing space. With the rapid influx of funding into the industry, startups play a crucial role in developing new applications and driving demand for Nvidia’s products. Wright’s experience and leadership will contribute to shaping the future of technology at Nvidia as the company continues to lead in AI computing.
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https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/2024/nvidia-taps-aws-exec-howard-wright-to-lead-startup-ecosystem
