① As of March 25, Stevens held more than 4.1 million Nvidia shares, second only to Wong In-hoon within the company; ② When Stevens was a new partner of Sequoia, Don Valentine, founder of “VC Godfather” Sequoia, and Stevens made an appointment with Wong In-hoon.
Financial Services Association, July 19 (Editor: Zhao Hao) As Nvidia's overall stock price strengthened during the year, executives, including Hwang In-hoon, have been cashing out one after another. Among them, you can often see a board member Mark Stevens (Mark Stevens).
According to Nvidia's 14A document, as of March 25, Stevens held more than 4.1 million Nvidia shares, second only to Hwang In-hoon in the number of shares held within the company. Additionally, Stevens also holds a minority stake in the NBA's Golden State Warriors.
According to media estimates, due to the increase in the value of Nvidia and the Golden State Warriors, Stevens's net worth reached 8.8 billion US dollars, ranking 306th in the world's richest list, surpassing Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager and founder of Pershing Square.
Source: Nvidia 14A Files
According to information, Stevens grew up in California, and his parents never went to college. While studying for a degree in electrical engineering and economics at the University of Southern California, he also worked part-time for Hughes Aircraft for several years. After graduation, he joined Intel for a sales position, then he joined Sequoia Capital for about 20 years.
When Stevens was a new partner at Sequoia, “VC Godfather” Sequoia founder Don Valentine (Don Valentine) and Stevens made an appointment to meet Wong In-hoon. According to some data, Sequoia initially invested 1 million dollars in Nvidia, and the chip company's initial valuation at the time was only 7 million dollars.
As a young semiconductor expert in the Sequoia faction, Stevens joined Nvidia's board of directors in 1993. However, it should be pointed out that Nvidia is not the only technology company Stevens is interested in. Since then, he has also led investments in companies such as Google, Yahoo, and YouTube, and served as a director of at least 12 companies during this period.
In 2006, as Sequoia partners withdrew from the boards of listed companies and began focusing on unlisted companies, Stevens also withdrew from the Nvidia board of directors; in 2008, Stevens began to gradually withdraw from his job at Sequoia, so Wong In-hoon invited him back to join.
Stevens, 64, told the media that he was unbelievable about what had happened in the past two or three years. “Some mornings you have to wake up and pinch yourself.” He admitted that he had doubts about Nvidia's survival. “The earliest products failed, and the company was burning money at the time, competing with other graphics companies in Silicon Valley and Apple for engineering talent.”
“I remember at least three times we almost lost our company. Jensen (Hwang In-hoon's English name) said, 'We're only 30 days away from bankruptcy'. It's a bit ridiculous when you look at it today, but in the 90s, it was a reality.” Stevens said.
It's worth mentioning that even 3 to 5 years ago, Nvidia wasn't very famous, and there are reports that the company “has long been famous in the niche gaming community for its GPUs.”
Nvidia has been working in the field of artificial intelligence for many years, but the truth is that it wasn't until the chatbot ChatGPT set off an AI boom that the market began to see the company's capabilities and potential. “No one predicted that Nvidia's valuation would soar from $800 or $9 million during Series A funding to $3 trillion today. No one could have imagined that.”
Stevens points out, “This is a classic case where he combines the right product vision, active management, and a huge market. So as soon as you show up at the door with the right product, the market will explode.”
According to Stevens, the potential of artificial intelligence is even higher than the Internet and mobile networks. “If the Internet had a five-fold impact on changing society, the mobile network would be 20 times greater. I think the impact of artificial intelligence is 200 times greater.”