What the Booming AI Industry Could Mean for the Bay Area

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For most of its history, Santa Clara based company Nvidia has been known primarily as a designer of computer parts meant for video games. But in recent years, those parts have become a crucial part of artificial intelligence programs. Now, Nvidia dominates the market of graphics processing units, or GPUs, meant for AI at a time when interest in AI is exploding. Skyrocketing demand for these GPUs have raised stock prices for Nvidia, giving the company a rare market valuation of more than$1 trillion, a distinction shared by only four other U.S. companies: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. We’ll talk about Nvidia’s history in Silicon Valley, its recent climb to elite status, and what the rise of AI might mean for the Bay Area. Guests: Cade Metz, technology reporter, the New York Times; author, “Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and The World” Margaret O'Mara, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt professor of American History, the University of Washington; author, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America" Max A. Cherney, senior tech reporter, the Silicon Valley Business Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQBD Podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a wellness resort 45 minutes outside of San Diego.
0:07.6	Summer packages include fitness and mindfulness classes, hiking, live music, and culinary adventures featuring fresh fruits and veggies.
0:16.3	Rancho LePuerta.com
0:18.1	Greetings, Boomtown.
0:19.5	The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming.
0:21.8	Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile.
0:24.9	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go.
0:28.5	Learn more at Xfinity.com.
0:30.4	Restrictions apply.
0:31.1	Xfinity internet required.
0:32.2	Actual speeds vary.
0:34.2	From KQED.
0:47.4	Thank you. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:50.8	There are only a handful of companies that have ever been valued at over a trillion
0:54.7	dollars. There are the Chinese and Saudi state oil companies, and then there are the tech giants
0:59.7	of the Pacific coast. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, and Invidia? Every company on the
1:07.4	list is a household name but that last one. Invidia makes chips, so this is a return to the Silicon of Silicon Valley.
1:13.9	But the reason that Nvidia is now one of the most valuable companies in all the world
1:17.8	is that this Santa Clara company makes the type of chips that turned out to be crucial for AI.
1:23.7	So we're going to talk about Nvidia, Silicon Valley history, and artificial intelligence futures.
1:28.3	That's all coming up next after this news.
1:38.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.