In 1999, Chris Malachowsky was on the team at NVIDIA that invented the Graphics Processing Unit, an invention that transformed the consumer electronics industry. The GPU is now used by video games and virtually all social media platforms. The son of a doctor, Chris started out as pre-med but switched to engineering and got hired by Hewlett Packard. “I never felt we were at risk,” Chris says of his early start-up days. But he cautions early entrepreneurs, “don’t do it for the money or the glory. It’s too hard.” (Mild profanity) This episode was originally released on November 20, 2019.**

TRANSCRIPT:

Intro (00:01):

Inventors and their inventions, welcome to Radio Cade the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace.

James Di Virgilio (00:39):

For Radio Cade, I'm James Di Virgilio. Our guest today is a 2019 Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, inductee, University of Florida alumnus, and co founder of NVIDIA. His name is Chris Malachowsky. Chris went on to found a fortune 1000 company that invented the Graphics Processing Unit, which for me was a large part of my life and had a big introduction to video games. But that unit did much larger things than that. It's now used by Facebook, Twitter, Google, super computers, a whole host of other things. And in fact, Chris and his cofounders transformed the visual computing industry by creating a consumer oriented 3D graphics market. Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm looking forward to hearing about your story. As we spoke off air, your story is like so many other inventors and entrepreneurs stories and that it does not move in a straight predictable line. Tell us how your story began.

Chris Malachowsky (01:34):

Well, I was a kid about to get in trouble in New Jersey and, uh, wanted to graduate early, before I succumb to the wildly ways with my friends and knew I wanted to get out of New Jersey. It was middle of winter it's slushy, it's cold, it's dreary. And my father was a physician. My parents and their friends all assumed I was to be a doctor. I like carpentry and cabinet making and, and thought that was the path I wanted, but didn't really think I needed to make up my mind. So what I did decide was warm and green was the criteria for school. If they had a medical school and a building construction school, I could decide later, let me just get on with my life, get out of New Jersey. And so I applied to Tulane, they had a really pretty lawn and sunny scene on the cover of their catalog thought that was attractive. They had a medical school on a building construction school done, I flied, and got in. My parents were a little gas that I wasn't giving myself more options and that maybe I should at least see the school. So my older brother was given my parents' car and him and I drove off to Tulane. And after being there for a couple of days, I really didn't think that was going to work out for me. I was going to get myself in some serious trouble in the French Quarter. So on the way home I was dismayed because I did not give myself any options. I stopped, to see a cousin who was going to University of Florida. I spent a couple of days there and really did like it. And it also had the same characteristics of building construction school and a medical school. And I decided this is cool. So I picked up an application and on the way, driving home to New Jersey, I filled it out, mailed it in, got in. And I guess