Jensen Huang's secret soft spot for Elon Musk — here’s the story you didn’t know

Elon Musk was Nvidia’s first DGX customer: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed a lesser-known chapter of his long-standing relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday. The two tech leaders, often viewed as giants of modern innovation, share a history that goes back to the early development of Tesla’s self-driving technology and the beginnings of OpenAI.

Huang and Musk both defied odds to build multi-trillion-dollar companies from scratch. Musk joined Tesla before the automaker had even outlined plans for its first vehicle and Huang started Nvidia at a Denny’s restaurant booth, as per a Teslarati report.

Jensen Huang Reveals Early Support From Elon Musk

During the interview, Rogan asked Huang about his connection with Musk. The Nvidia CEO responded with a story that highlighted Musk’s early support that arrived at a time when virtually no one else showed interest.


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How Nvidia Helped Build Tesla’s First Self-Driving Computers

Huang recounted helping Musk build Tesla’s first computers for the Model S, Model 3, and the company’s early autonomous driving systems. Nvidia supplied what he described as the “FSD computer version 1,” solidifying an early technical partnership between the two companies.

The Untold Story Behind Nvidia’s DGX-1 Supercomputer Launch

But the most revealing moment came when Huang described launching Nvidia’s DGX-1 supercomputer. Despite the breakthrough nature of the technology, he said that nobody wanted it at first. There were no purchase orders and no interest, except from Elon Musk.

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Elon Musk Becomes the First Buyer of Nvidia’s DGX-1

Huang recalled Musk attending the launch event, where they discussed the future of self-driving cars. Huang said that Musk told him, “You know what? I have a company that could really use this. And I said, Wow, my first customer. I was pretty excited about it. And he goes, Yeah, we have this company. It’s a non-profit company”, as quoted in an X post by Nic Cruz Patane.

According to Huang, “all the blood drained out of my face” upon hearing that. The Nvidia CEO said that, "I had just spent a few billion dollars building this thing. It cost $300,000. And the chances of a non-profit being able to pay for this thing were approximately zero, and he goes, You know, it’s an AI company, and it’s a non-profit. And we could really use one of these supercomputers,” as quoted in an X post by Nic Cruz Patane.

Huang Personally Delivered Nvidia’s First DGX-1 to OpenAI

Then Huang decided to personally deliver Nvidia’s first DGX-1 unit to Musk in 2016. Huang said, "So I picked it up. I built the first one for ourselves—we’re using it inside the company. I boxed one up, drove it up to San Francisco, and delivered it to Elon in 2016. I walked up to the second floor, where they were all kind of crammed into a room smaller than this place here, and that place turned out to be OpenAI,” as quoted in an X post by Nic Cruz Patane.

How Nvidia’s Early Work Supported the Rise of OpenAI

That DGX-1 became crucial early compute for OpenAI’s AI research work that later paved the way for breakthroughs powering tools like ChatGPT, as per the Teslarati report.

The Long-Standing Nvidia–Tesla Relationship

The long-standing relationship between Nvidia and Tesla has since helped drive more than $2 trillion in market value for Nvidia since 2016, as per the report.

FAQs

What did Jensen Huang reveal about Elon Musk?

He shared that Musk supported him early on by buying Nvidia’s DGX-1 when no one else would.

What role did Nvidia play in Tesla’s technology?

Nvidia helped build Tesla’s early computers for Model S, Model 3, and autonomous driving.