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I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Sholem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

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Today is March 5, 2026, and my guest is author Stephen Witt.

His latest book and the subject of today's conversation is The Thinking Machine, Jensen Wang, Invida, and the world's most coveted microchip.

Stephen, welcome to econ talk. Oh, thank you so much for having

me. So this is really an extraordinary book. It's a history indirectly of, I'd say, the last

30 years or so of the digital age. It's an incredible portrait of a visionary and his company.

I think some of my listeners and viewers will know, well, have heard of Nvidia, but won't know much

about it other than perhaps that it's the most valuable company in the world measured by market

capitalization.

Most of them, I don't think, will know who Jensen Wang is.

And your book is a wonderful introduction to both Wang and Invidia.

Let's start by going to the beginning, Jensen Wang, the founder and CEO.

What is his beginning?

He comes to the United States

under unusual circumstances as a young as a kid. Yeah, Jensen was born in Taiwan in 1963.

He moved to Thailand when he was about five years old. His father was an engineer who worked

at a petroleum company. And then he came to the U.S. when he was about 10. In 1973, there was like a coup d'etat in Thailand, and it was violent. There were tanks in the street. And his parents said, let's get the kids out of here. So he sent Jensen and his older brother ahead to the U.S. They were planning to move to the U.S., but Jensen showed up alone to live with his uncle.

...