Jensen Huang delivered the keynote address at Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) on May 10, 2026。 "How hard could it be? Fight for the chance! So run—don't walk. Seize the opportunity for your American Dream in this AI century." - CL Reading the transcripts is better than watching a YouTube video. JENSEN HUANG: "President Jahanian, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, distinguished guests, proud parents and families, and above all, the Carnegie Mellon class of 2026. Thank you for this extraordinary honor. It is deeply meaningful to be here with Carnegie Mellon, one of the world’s great universities, and one of the rare places that invents the future. Today is a day of pride and joy. A dream come true for you, but not only for you. Your families, teachers, mentors, and friends helped carry you here. Before we talk about the future, thank them. This day belongs to them too. Graduates, please stand up. Stand with me. Come on, you guys. Especially, turn to your mothers and wish them a happy Mother’s Day. For you, this is another step in your life, but for her, this is a dream come true. Please sit down. CMU students like robots take instructions one at a time... To see you graduate from one of the world’s great institutions, this is her moment too. My mom and dad are deeply proud of me as well. My journey is their journey. I am their dream come true. And their dream was the American dream. Like many in this audience, I’m a first-generation immigrant. My father had a dream to raise this family in America. When I was nine years old, he sent my older brother and me to the United States. We ended up at a Baptist boarding school in Oneida, Kentucky. Coal country. A town of a few hundred people. Two years later, my parents left everything behind to join us. They came with little to nothing. My father was a chemical engineer. My mother worked as a maid at a Catholic school. She woke me up at 4 a.m. in the morning to deliver newspapers. My older brother got me a job as a dishwasher at Denny’s. Which, at the time, felt like a major career advancement. That was my view of America. Not easy, but full of opportunities. Not a guarantee, but a chance. My parents came here because they believed America could give their children a chance. How can we not be romantic about America? I went to Oregon State University. I met my wife, Lori, when I was 17 years old. I was the youngest kid in school. We were sophomore lab partners. She was 19. An older woman. I beat out 250 other boys in class and won her heart. We’ve now been married for 40 years. We have two amazing children, both working at NVIDIA. When I was 30, I started NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, two amazing computer scientists. We wanted to build a new kind of computer, one that could solve problems ordinary computers could not. We had absolutely no idea how to build a company, raise money, or run NVIDIA. I just thought, how hard could it be? It turns out, it is really, really hard. Our first technology didn’t even work. We nearly ran out of money. At one point, I had to fly to Japan and explain to Sega’s CEO that the technology they contracted us to build would not work. Asked to be released from a contract we could not complete. And then asked that they still pay us. Without the money, NVIDIA would vaporize. It was embarrassing, humiliating, and one of the hardest things I have ever done. And Sega’s CEO, Irimaji-san, said yes. I learned early that being CEO is not about power, but the responsibility that comes with keeping the company alive. And that honesty and humility can be met with generosity and kindness, even in business. We used the money to reset the company, and out of desperation, we invented new ways of designing chips and computers that we still use today. For 33 years, NVIDIA has reinvented itself over and over again, each time asking, how hard can it be? And each time learning, it’s harder than we thought. But through those experiences, we learned never to see failure as the opposite of success. Each failure is just another learning moment, a humility moment, a character-strengthening moment. The resilience forged through setbacks is what gives you the strength to go again. Today, I am one of the longest-serving CEOs in technology. NVIDIA, the body of work I share with 45,000 extraordinary colleagues, is my life’s work. Now it’s your time to realize your dreams. And the timing could not be more perfect. My career started at the beginning of the PC revolution. Your career starts at the beginning of the AI revolution. I cannot imagine a more exciting time to begin your life’s work. AI started right here at Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie Mellon is one of the true birthplaces of artificial intelligence and robotics. In the 1950s, researchers here created the Logic Theorist, widely recognized as the first AI computer program. In 1979, Carnegie Mellon founded the Robotics Institute. Artificial intelligence has gone on now to reinvent computing completely. I have lived through every major computing platform shift... But what is about to happen now is bigger than anything before. Because intelligence is foundational to every industry, every industry will change. For the first time, the power of computing and intelligence can truly reach everyone and close the technology divide. Now it’s your time to realize your dreams — and the timing could not be more perfect. AI is making intelligence more broadly accessible... This is the largest technology infrastructure buildout in human history, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reindustrialize America and restore the nation’s capacity to build. Every major technological revolution in history created fear alongside opportunity. When society engages technology openly, responsibly and optimistically, we expand human potential far more than we diminish it. AI won’t replace you, but people who use AI will. AI automates tasks but elevates workers. The task and purpose of a job are not the same... AI is unlikely to replace you, but someone who uses AI better might. The responsibility of our generation is not only to advance AI — but to advance it wisely. Scientists and engineers have a profound responsibility to advance AI capabilities and AI safety together. Policymakers have a responsibility to create thoughtful guardrails... So, the answer is not to fear the future. The answer is to guide it wisely. Carnegie Mellon has a motto I love: “My heart is in the work.” So put your heart in the work. Build something worthy of your education, your potential and the people who believed in you long before the world did. We have the opportunity to close the technology divide — and bring the power of computing and intelligence to billions of people for the very first time. To reindustrialize America and restore our capacity to build. And to help create a future more abundant, more capable, and more hopeful than the world you inherited. You are entering the world at an extraordinary moment. A new industry is being born. A new era of science and discovery is beginning... No generation has entered the world with more powerful tools — or greater opportunities — than you. We are all standing at the same starting line. This is your moment to help shape what comes next. So run. Don’t walk."