黄仁勋CMU演講：AI時代，不要旁觀，去建造

Video Title: 2026 CMU Commencement Keynote Speaker: Jensen Huang

Video Author: Carnegie Mellon University

Compiled by: peggy

Editor's Note: In this speech to Carnegie Mellon University's Class of 2026, Jensen Huang doesn't frame AI as a mere technological wave. Instead, he places it within the broader context of personal destiny, industry cycles, and national capacity rebuilding.

Beginning with his own immigrant experience, early jobs, and the failures and restarts of founding NVIDIA, he attempts to illustrate a core thesis: what truly changes a life is not a deterministic path to success, but the ability to continuously take responsibility, learn from failure, and restart anew amidst uncertainty. NVIDIA's growth is itself built upon repeated misjudgments of "how hard can it be?" and subsequent reinventions.

Huang's definition of the AI revolution goes beyond a "tool upgrade." In his view, AI is resetting computing itself: shifting from humans writing programs and computers executing instructions, to machines understanding, reasoning, planning, and using tools. It will not only transform the software industry but also reshape the organizational structures of manufacturing, energy, healthcare, education, and nearly every sector.

This is the speech's most crucial real-world implication: AI is not merely creating a new computing industry; it is opening a new industrial era. Chip factories, data centers, power grids, energy systems, and advanced manufacturing will collectively form the foundation for the next wave of technological infrastructure. For the United States, this means an opportunity for re-industrialization. For graduates, it means their career starting point coincides perfectly with the beginning of a new industrial cycle.

However, Huang does not shy away from the uncertainties AI brings. He acknowledges that AI will automate many tasks and cause some jobs to disappear. But he distinguishes between "tasks" and "purpose": AI can replace parts of the labor process, but it cannot replace the human capacity to ask questions, define goals, and take responsibility. The real risk is not AI replacing people, but people who cannot use AI being left behind by those who can.

As Carnegie Mellon's motto states: "My heart is in the work." In an era where intelligence is redefined and industries are reorganized, Huang's advice to graduates can be summarized in one sentence: Don't just watch the future unfold. Put your heart into it, and then build it yourself.

Following is the original text:

President, Trustees, Professors, Distinguished Guests, Proud parents and families, and most importantly – the graduating Class of 2026 of Carnegie Mellon University:

Thank you for granting me this incredible honor.

Being here at Carnegie Mellon means a great deal to me. This is one of the greatest universities in the world, and one of the few places that truly "invents the future."

Today is a day of pride and joy, a day your dreams have come true. But this day does not belong only to you. Your families, teachers, mentors, and friends have supported you every step of the way here. Before we talk about the future, please thank them. Today belongs to them too.

Graduates, please stand up. Stand with me. Go ahead, everyone.

Especially, please turn to your mothers and wish them a Happy Mother's Day. For you, this is just another step in life; for them, it's a dream come true.

Please sit down. Ah, CMU students – just like robots, executing one instruction at a time (laughter).

Alright, focus everyone. I have an important thing to tell you. To see you graduate from one of the world's greatest institutions – this is their moment too. My parents have always been so proud of me. My journey was also their journey.

I am the result of their dreams coming true. And their dream was the American Dream.

Like many of you here, I am a first-generation immigrant. My father had a dream: to raise his family in America. When I was 9, he sent my brother and me to the US. We ended up at a Baptist boarding school in Oneida, Kentucky. It was in a coal mining area, a small town of a few hundred people.

Two years later, my parents gave up everything and came to America to join us. They had almost nothing. My father was a chemical engineer, and my mother worked as a maid at a Catholic school. She woke me up at 4 AM every day to deliver newspapers. Later, my brother helped me get a job washing dishes at Denny's. For me back then, that was a huge career promotion.

This is what America was to me: not easy, but full of opportunity. It's not a guarantee, it's a chance. My parents came here because they believed America could give their children a chance. How could we not have a romantic view of America?

Later, I went to Oregon State University. I met my wife, Lori, when I was 17. I was the youngest kid in school, and we were lab partners in a sophomore chemistry class. She was 19, an "older woman." I beat out the other 250 guys in the class and won her over. We've been married for 40 years now. We have two wonderful children, who both work at NVIDIA now.

When I was 30, I founded NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. They were two brilliant computer scientists. We wanted to build a new kind of computer – one that could solve problems ordinary computers couldn't. We had no idea how to start a company, how to raise funds, or how to run NVIDIA.

I just thought: how hard can it be?

Well, it turned out to be really, really hard. Our first technology didn't even work.

We nearly ran out of money. I had to fly to Japan once to explain to the CEO of Sega that the technology they had contracted us to build wasn't feasible. I asked them to cancel the contract we couldn't fulfill, and then asked them to keep paying us. If we didn't get that money, NVIDIA would have been destroyed.

It was an embarrassing, humiliating thing, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

And the CEO of Sega said yes.

I learned very early that being a CEO doesn't mean power, but responsibility – the responsibility to keep the company alive. I also learned that even in the business world, honesty and humility can be met with generosity and goodwill.

We used that money to restart the company. And it was in that desperate situation that we invented new approaches to chips and computer design, methods that are still in use today.

For 33 years, NVIDIA has reinvented itself time and time again. Every time, we ask: "How hard can it be?" And every time, we learn: "Harder than we thought."

But it's also in these experiences that we learned never to see failure as the opposite of success. Every failure is just a moment to learn, a moment to stay humble, a moment to build character. The resilience forged by setbacks gives you the strength to start again.

Today, I'm one of the longest-serving CEOs in the tech industry. NVIDIA, and the work I have done together with 45,000 extraordinary colleagues, is my life's work.

Now, it's your turn to build your dreams. And the timing couldn't be better.

My career began at the start of the PC revolution. Yours begins at the start of the AI revolution. I cannot imagine a more exciting time to begin your life's work.

AI started right here at Carnegie Mellon. In the last 24 hours, I've heard countless AI jokes here. Carnegie Mellon is one of the true birthplaces of artificial intelligence and robotics. In the 1950s, researchers here created the Logic Theorist, widely considered the first artificial intelligence computer program.

In 1979, Carnegie Mellon founded the Robotics Institute. I visited some robotic projects this morning. The Robotics Institute was the first academic institution fully dedicated to robotics.

Today, AI is beginning to completely reshape computing.

I have lived through every major computing platform shift: mainframes, personal computers, the internet, mobile internet, and cloud computing. Each wave built upon the last. Each expanded accessibility. Each transformed industries and society.

But what is coming next is bigger than anything before.

Computing is undergoing a total reset. Nothing like this has happened since modern computing was invented. For the past 60 years, the way computing worked has hardly changed: humans write software, computers execute instructions. That paradigm is over.

AI has reinvented computing. From human programming to machine learning. From software running on CPUs to neural networks running on GPUs. From executing instructions to understanding, reasoning, planning, and using tools. A new industry capable of manufacturing intelligence at scale is emerging. Because intelligence is the foundation of all industries. Every single sector will be changed.

For many, AI brings uncertainty. People see AI writing software, generating images, driving cars, and naturally ask: What happens next? Will jobs disappear? Will people be left behind? Could this technology become too powerful? Every major technological revolution in history has brought both fear and opportunity.

When society engages with technological progress in an open, responsible, and optimistic way, we expand human potential far more than we diminish it. So, first and foremost, we must stay clear-headed.

Artificial intelligence – the automation of understanding, reasoning, and problem-solving – is one of the most powerful technologies humanity has ever created. Like all transformative technologies before it, it brings both immense promise and real risks.

The responsibility of our generation is not just to advance AI, but to advance it wisely. Scientists and engineers bear a profound responsibility: to simultaneously advance AI's capabilities and AI's safety. Policymakers also have a responsibility to build thoughtful guardrails that protect society while allowing innovation, discovery, and progress to continue.

History shows that societies that shrink from technology do not stop progress. They simply give up the chance to shape it and benefit from it. So, the answer is not to fear the future. The answer is to guide the future wisely, build it responsibly, and ensure it benefits as many people as possible.

We should not teach people to be afraid of the future. We should engage the future with optimism, responsibility, and ambition. Only a small fraction of the world knows how to write software.

But now, anyone can ask AI to help them build something useful. A shopkeeper can create a website to grow their business. A carpenter can design a kitchen to offer new services to clients. The code is written by AI.

Now, everyone is a programmer.

For the first time, the power of computing and intelligence can truly reach everyone and bridge the technological divide. Just like electricity and the internet before it, AI will require trillions of dollars in infrastructure investment. This is the largest technology infrastructure buildout in human history, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to re-industrialize America and restore this nation's ability to build.

To support AI, America will build chip factories, computer factories, data centers, and advanced manufacturing facilities across the country. AI gives America the chance to build again. Electricians, plumbers, steelworkers, technicians, construction workers – this is your time.

AI is not just creating a new computing industry. It is creating a new industrial era. Supporting this new infrastructure requires enormous energy supply. But it is also driving one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in decades: modernizing the grid, expanding power generation, and accelerating the development of sustainable energy.

Yes, AI will change every job. But the tasks of a job and the purpose of a job are not the same thing.

Many tasks will be automated. Some jobs will disappear. But many new jobs, and entirely new industries, will also be created.

Software coding tasks are increasingly automated. But with AI, software engineers can broaden their search for solutions, enabling them to tackle more ambitious problems.

Radiology image analysis is increasingly automated. But with AI, radiologists will be elevated to a new level, better able to diagnose diseases and care for patients.

AI will not replace humans; it will augment human abilities. That's why, even as AI writes more code and analyzes more scans, the demand for software engineers and radiologists continues to grow.

AI likely won't replace you. But someone who knows how to use AI better than you might.

So, a good thought experiment is: Do we want our children to be empowered by AI, or left behind by those who are? No parent wants their child to be left behind.

So, let's build AI safely. At the same time, let's imagine an optimistic future: a future our children will want to be a part of and will be inspired to build together.

Therefore, we can, and must, do four things simultaneously: advance the technology safely; establish thoughtful policies; make AI widely accessible; and encourage everyone to participate.

Everyone should own AI. Opportunity shouldn't belong only to those who can code.

Class of 2026, you are entering an extraordinary moment.

A new industry is being born. A new era of science and discovery is beginning.

AI will accelerate the expansion of human knowledge, helping us solve problems once thought unreachable. We have the chance to bridge the technology divide, bringing the power of computing and intelligence to billions for the first time. We have the chance to re-industrialize America, restore our ability to build, and help create a future that is more prosperous, stronger, and more hopeful than the one you inherited.

No generation has entered the world with more powerful tools than you possess, and no generation has had a greater opportunity.

We are all standing at the same starting line.

This is your moment to shape what happens next. So, run, don't walk.

Carnegie Mellon has a motto that I love: "My heart is in the work."

So, put your hearts into the work. Create something worthy of your education, worthy of your potential, and worthy of the people who believed in you long before the world did.

Congratulations, Class of 2026 of Carnegie Mellon University.

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