Video Title: 2026 CMU Commencement Keynote Speaker: Jensen Huang
Video Author: Carnegie Mellon University
Translation: peggy
Editor's Note: In this speech directed towards the graduates of Carnegie Mellon University in 2026, Jensen Huang did not describe AI as merely a wave of technology, but rather understood it within the longer context of personal destiny, industry cycles, and national capacity rebuilding.
He began with his own immigrant experience, early jobs, and the failures and restart of founding NVIDIA, attempting to illustrate a core judgment: what truly changes lives is not a deterministic path to success, but the ability to continuously take responsibility, learn from failures, and start anew amidst uncertainty. The growth of NVIDIA is also built upon repeated misjudgments and reinventions of "how hard can this be."
Huang's definition of the AI revolution is not limited to "tool upgrades." In his view, AI is resetting computation itself: moving from human-written programs and computer-executed instructions to machines that understand, reason, plan, and use tools. It will not only change the software industry but also the organization of manufacturing, energy, healthcare, education, and nearly every other industry.
This is the most important practical implication of this speech: AI is not just creating a new computing industry, but is opening a new industrial era. Chip factories, data centers, power grids, and energy systems will together form the next wave of technological infrastructure building. For the United States, this signifies an opportunity for reindustrialization; for graduates, it means they are at the starting point of their careers, right at the beginning of a new industrial cycle.
However, Huang did not shy away from the uncertainties brought by AI. He acknowledged that AI will automate many tasks and will lead to some jobs disappearing. But he distinguished between "tasks" and "purposes": AI can replace some labor processes, but it will not replace the human ability to ask questions, define goals, and take responsibility. The real risk is not AI replacing humans, but people who do not know how to use AI being left behind by those who do.
As Carnegie Mellon's motto states: "My heart is in the work." In an era where intelligence is being redefined and industries are being reorganized, Huang's advice to graduates can be summarized in one sentence: Do not be a spectator of the future; invest your heart in it and build it with your own hands.
Here is the original text:
President, Board of Trustees members, professors, distinguished guests, proud parents and families, and most importantly—graduates of Carnegie Mellon University Class of 2026:
Thank you for this extraordinary honor.
To be here at Carnegie Mellon University means a great deal to me. This is one of the greatest universities in the world, and one of the few truly capable of "inventing the future."
Today is a day of pride and joy; it is a day when your dreams come true. But this day does not belong to you alone. Your families, teachers, mentors, and friends have supported you to get to this point. Before we talk about the future, let’s thank them. Today belongs to them too.
Graduates, please stand up. Stand up with me. Come on, everyone.
Especially, please turn to your mothers and wish them a Happy Mother’s Day. For you, this is just another step in life; but for them, it is a moment when dreams come true.
Please be seated. CMU students, you really are like robots, able to follow only one instruction at a time (laughs).
Alright, everyone focus. I have something important to tell you. It is also their moment to see you graduate from one of the greatest institutions in the world. My parents have always been proud of me. My journey is also their journey.
I am the result of their dreams coming true. And their dream is the American dream.
Like many of you, I am a first-generation immigrant. My father had a dream: to raise a family in America. When I was 9 years old, he sent my brother and me to America. We finally arrived at a Baptist boarding school in Oneida, Kentucky. It was a small town with only a few hundred residents, in the coal mining area.
Two years later, my parents left everything behind and came to America to reunite with us. They had almost nothing. My father was a chemical engineer, and my mother worked as a maid at a Catholic school. She would wake me up at 4 AM every day to go deliver newspapers. Later, my brother helped me get a job washing dishes at Denny's. To my younger self, that felt like a major career advancement.
This is my view of America: it is not easy, but it is full of opportunities. It is not a guarantee, but an opportunity. My parents came here because they believed that America could give their children a chance. How could we not have a romantic imagination about America?
Later, I went to Oregon State University. At 17, I met my wife Lori. At that time, I was the youngest kid at school, and we were lab partners in our sophomore class. She was 19 and an "older woman." I beat out 250 other boys in class to win her heart. Now, we have been married for 40 years. We have two wonderful children, both of whom work at NVIDIA now.
When I was 30, I co-founded NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. They are two very talented computer scientists. We wanted to create a new type of computer, one that could solve problems that ordinary computers could not. We had no idea how to start a company, raise funding, or operate NVIDIA.
At the time, I only thought: how hard can this be?
As it turned out, it was indeed very hard. Our first technology couldn't even be used.
We nearly exhausted our funds. Once, I had to fly to Japan to explain to Sega's CEO that the technology we had signed them to develop was not workable. I asked them to release us from the contract we could not fulfill, and then requested that they continue payment. Without that money, NVIDIA would have vanished.
That was an embarrassing, shameful thing to do, and one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life.
And Sega's CEO agreed.
I understood early on that being a CEO does not mean having power, but rather means having responsibility—responsibility for keeping the company alive. I also realized that even in the business world, honesty and humility can lead to generosity and kindness.
We used that money to relaunch the company. It was in that dire situation that we invented new chip and computer design methods, which are still being used today.
For 33 years, NVIDIA has redefined itself time and again. Each time, we would ask: "How hard can this be?" And each time, we learned: "Harder than we imagined."
But it was also through these experiences that we learned never to view failure as the opposite of success. Each failure is merely a moment to learn, a moment to remain humble, a moment to forge character. The resilience formed through setbacks will give you the strength to start again.
Today, I am one of the longest-serving CEOs in the tech industry. NVIDIA, along with the achievements I have accomplished with my 45,000 outstanding colleagues, is my life's work.
Now, it is your turn to realize your dreams. And the timing could not be better.
My career began at the dawn of the PC revolution. Your careers are beginning at the dawn of the AI revolution. I cannot imagine a moment more exciting than now to launch your lifelong careers.
AI started here at Carnegie Mellon. Over the past 24 hours, I have heard countless jokes about AI at Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie Mellon is truly one of the birthplaces of artificial intelligence and robotics. In the 1950s, researchers here created the Logic Theorist, which is widely regarded as the first artificial intelligence computer program.
In 1979, Carnegie Mellon established the Robotics Institute. This morning, I visited some robotics-related projects. The Robotics Institute was the first academic institution fully dedicated to robotics.
Today, artificial intelligence is beginning to fundamentally reshape computation.
I have witnessed every major transition in computing platforms: mainframes, personal computers, the internet, mobile internet, and cloud computing. Each wave built upon the previous one. Each wave expanded the accessibility of technology. Each wave changed industries and society.
But what is about to happen is bigger than ever before.
Computation is undergoing a complete reset. Such a change has never occurred since modern computing was invented. For the past 60 years, the way computation works has remained fundamentally unchanged: humans write software, and computers execute instructions. That paradigm is now over.
Artificial intelligence has reinvented computation. 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 scalable intelligence manufacturing is emerging. Because intelligence is the foundation of all industries. Every industry will be transformed.
For many, AI brings uncertainty. People see AI writing software, generating images, driving cars, and naturally ask: what will happen next? Will jobs disappear? Will people be left behind? Will this technology become too powerful? Historically, every major technological revolution has brought both fear and opportunity.
When society engages with technological progress in an open, responsible, and optimistic way, the extent to which we expand human potential far exceeds the extent to which we weaken it. So, first and foremost, we must remain vigilant.
Artificial intelligence, the automation of understanding, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities, is one of the most powerful technologies humans have ever created. Like all transformative technologies before it, it brings both enormous hope and real risks.
Our generation's responsibility is not only to advance AI, but to advance it wisely. Scientists and engineers bear a profound responsibility: to advance both the capabilities of AI and the safety of AI. Policymakers also have a responsibility to establish prudent guardrails that protect society while allowing innovation, discovery, and progress to continue.
History has shown that societies that shrink away from technology do not halt progress. They simply forfeit the opportunity to shape and benefit from progress. So, the answer is not to fear the future. The answer is to guide the future wisely, build the future responsibly, and ensure that it can benefit as many people as possible.
We should not teach people to fear the future. We should engage with the future with optimism, responsibility, and ambition. Only a small number of people in the world know how to write software.
But now, anyone can ask AI to help build useful things for them. A shopkeeper can create a website to grow their business. A carpenter can design kitchens and offer new services to customers. The code is written by AI.
Now, everyone is a programmer.
This is the first time that the power of computing and intelligence can truly reach every person and bridge the technology gap. Just like the changes brought by electricity and the internet, AI will require trillions of dollars in infrastructure investment. This is the largest scale of technological infrastructure building in human history and a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to reindustrialize America and restore the nation's construction capability.
To support AI, America will build chip factories, computer factories, data centers, and advanced manufacturing facilities across the country. AI has provided America the opportunity to rebuild. 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. The new infrastructure requires huge energy supplies. But it is also driving one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in decades: modernizing the power grid, expanding electricity production, 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 being automated. But with AI, software engineers can expand the range of solutions they seek, thus challenging more ambitious problems.
Radiology image analysis is increasingly being automated. But with AI, radiologists will be elevated to a new level, diagnosing diseases and caring for patients better.
AI will not replace humans; it will amplify human capabilities. This is why, even as AI writes more code and analyzes more scan images, the demand for software engineers and radiologists continues to grow.
AI is unlikely to replace you. But someone who knows how to use AI better than you might replace you.
So a good thought experiment is: do we want our children to be empowered by AI or to be left behind by those who are empowered by AI? No parent wants their child to be left behind.
So, let us build AI safely. At the same time, let us envision an optimistic future: a future that our children are willing to engage in and feel inspired to co-build.
Therefore, we can and must simultaneously do four things: advance technology safely; develop prudent policies; ensure AI is widely accessible; and encourage everyone to participate.
Everyone should have access to AI. Opportunities should not only belong to those who can write code.
Graduates of 2026, you are entering an extraordinary moment.
A new industry is being born. A new era of science and discovery is opening.
AI will accelerate the expansion of human knowledge, helping us solve problems that once seemed unreachable. We have the opportunity to bridge the technology gap and truly empower billions of people with the power of computing and intelligence for the first time. We have the chance to reindustrialize America, restore our capacity to build, and help create a future that is more prosperous, powerful, and hopeful than the world you inherit.
No generation has entered the world with more powerful tools than you, nor has any generation had greater opportunities than you.
We all stand on the same starting line.
This is your moment to shape everything that will happen next. So, run, do not walk.
Carnegie Mellon has a motto I really like: "My heart is in the work." My heart is in this work.
So, put your heart into the work. Create something worthy of the education you have received, worthy of your potential, and worthy of those who believed in you long before the world did.
Congratulations, graduates of Carnegie Mellon University Class of 2026.
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