Jensen Huang tells graduates: AI won't replace you, but those who use AI well will.

Old Huang has become a doctor again.

At the latest graduation ceremony of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the head of NVIDIA was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology and gave a speech in the rain to more than 5,800 graduates.

P.S. This is already his 7th honorary doctorate.

As the core promoter of the global AI wave, he said a line that is destined to go viral: AI won't replace you, but those who are good at using AI will.

This line almost hit the hearts of the young people sitting in the audience because they are facing one of the most anxiety - ridden job markets in recent years. The AI wave has swept through Silicon Valley, large companies have been laying off employees continuously, and the difficulty for American fresh graduates to find jobs has reached a peak in the past four years.

Many young people are starting to seriously think for the first time: Will what I've learned become useless soon?

This kind of emotion can actually be easily felt at the scene. The graduation ceremony is still as lively as ever, but beyond the excitement, a sense of uncertainty about the future is almost written on many people's faces.

In the face of this anxiety that permeates almost the entire technology industry, the man at the forefront of this AI wave has a completely opposite view:

I can't imagine a better time than now to start your careers.

This may sound like a cliche, but coming from Old Huang, it's hard not to believe it to some extent. After all, finding and seizing opportunities in difficult situations is a true reflection of his journey.

He immigrated to the United States at the age of 9 without knowing a single word of English. His mother woke him up at 4 a.m. to deliver newspapers. Later, he worked part - time while studying and obtained a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. He founded a company at the age of 30, but the first - generation product was a failure, and the company almost went bankrupt. At the most difficult time, he flew to Japan to apologize to the CEO of Sega, which gave NVIDIA a chance to survive... until now he has become the head of a trillion - dollar empire.

So when such a person shouts "So run, don't walk" to the Class of 2026, perhaps there's more to it than just a cliche.

The following is the full text of Jensen Huang's speech.

Personal Struggle: From Dishwasher to NVIDIA CEO

(Opening remarks)

Distinguished President, Board members, faculty, guests, proud parents, and most importantly, the Class of 2026 of Carnegie Mellon University. I am deeply honored to stand here and receive this extraordinary honor. CMU is one of the world's top universities and one of the few places that can truly shape the future.

Today is not only the day when your dreams come true but also the day when the dreams of your family, teachers, mentors, and friends come true. Before looking forward to the future, please express your gratitude to them. Please stand up, graduates, and turn to your mothers. Wish them a happy Mother's Day. Seeing you graduate from this great institution is also a dream come true for them.

Okay, please sit down.

The students at CMU are really like robots - they execute one instruction at a time (laughs).

My parents are also very proud of me. My journey is their journey, and I am the proof of their dreams coming true. Like many of you here, I am also a first - generation immigrant. My father always dreamed of settling in the United States, so when I was 9, he sent me and my brother to the United States. We ended up at a Baptist boarding school in Oneida, Kentucky, a small coal - mining town with only a few hundred people. Two years later, my parents used all their savings to come to the United States and reunite with us.

My father was a chemical engineer, and my mother was a maid at a Catholic school. She woke me up at 4 a.m. to deliver newspapers, and my brother found me my first job - washing dishes at Denny's. At that time, I thought it was a major leap in my career. This is how I see the United States: It's not necessarily easy, but it's full of opportunities.

I later went to Oregon State University. I met my wife, Lori, when I was 17. I was the youngest student in the school at that time, and she was a 19 - year - old "older girl". We were partners in a sophomore experiment class. Eventually, I defeated the other 250 boys in the class and won her heart. Now we've been married for 40 years, and our two children are currently working at NVIDIA.

At the age of 30, I co - founded NVIDIA with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. We wanted to build a new type of computer to solve problems that ordinary computers couldn't. At that time, I just thought, "How hard could it be?" It turned out to be extremely difficult.

Our first technology didn't work at all, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. I had to fly to Japan and confess to the CEO of Sega that we couldn't fulfill the technical requirements of the contract and pleaded with them to still pay us, otherwise, NVIDIA would go out of business. That was one of the most embarrassing, shameful, and difficult things I've ever done. And the CEO of Sega agreed.

I learned from this that the essence of a CEO is not power but the responsibility to keep the company alive. Humility and honesty can often be rewarded with generosity and kindness. We used that money to turn the company around and invented a new chip - design method that is still in use today in a desperate situation.

In the past 33 years, NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself. Every time we asked, "How hard could it be?" the answer was always "Harder than we thought". But these experiences taught us: Never regard failure as the opposite of success - failure is just another moment to learn, build character, and strengthen resilience.

Today, I am one of the longest - serving CEOs in the technology industry. NVIDIA and everything that I and my 45,000 outstanding colleagues have built together are the cause of my life. And now, it's your turn. You couldn't have entered the world at a better time.

The Reset of Computer Science: The Beginning of the AI Revolution

My career started at the beginning of the PC revolution, and yours starts at the beginning of the AI revolution. I can't imagine a more exciting time than now.

In fact, many starting points of AI come from CMU. In the past 24 hours, I've heard countless jokes about AI (laughs). But CMU is indeed one of the real birthplaces of artificial intelligence and robotics. As early as the 1950s, researchers here developed the Logic Theorist - widely regarded as the world's first AI program. In 1979, CMU established the Robotics Institute. I visited the Robo Club this morning, which is the world's first academic institution dedicated to robotics research.

Today, AI has completely stepped out of the laboratory and is starting to reshape the entire computing industry. I've witnessed almost every major computing platform change: mainframes, PCs, the Internet, mobile devices, and cloud computing. Each wave is built on the previous one; each time, technology becomes more accessible and profoundly changes society. But what's about to happen next will be on a much larger scale than any previous event because computing itself is being redefined.

In the past 60 years, the basic model of computers has never changed: humans write software, and computers execute instructions. But now, this era is over. AI has changed the entire computing paradigm - from "human programming" to "machine learning"; from CPUs executing software to GPUs running neural networks; from "executing commands" to "understanding, reasoning, planning, and using tools".

A new industry is being born: Large - scale manufacturing of intelligence. Because intelligence will become the infrastructure for all future industries.

Facing Fear and Opportunity: AI Amplifies Human Abilities

Every industry will be changed by this, and many people are feeling uneasy. They see AI writing code, generating images, and driving cars, and they start to worry: Will jobs disappear? Will humans be replaced? Will technology get out of control?

In fact, every major technological revolution has been accompanied by similar anxiety. But history also tells us that when society embraces technology in an open, responsible, and optimistic way, the expansion of human abilities is often much greater than the weakening part.

Of course, we must also stay sober. AI is one of the most powerful technologies in human history. It brings great hope but also real risks. Therefore, the responsibility of our generation is not only to promote the development of AI but also to promote it in the right way. Scientists and engineers must pay attention to both capabilities and safety; policymakers need to establish reasonable rules to protect society without stifling innovation and exploration.

Because history has proven that societies that reject technology out of fear cannot stop progress from happening; they just lose the opportunity to participate in shaping the future and benefit from it. So, we shouldn't teach young people to be afraid of the future but should teach them to build the future with a sense of responsibility, optimism, and ambition.

In the past, only a very small number of people in the world could program; now, anyone can create things with the help of AI. The owner of a small store can build a website by themselves; a carpenter can design a kitchen plan with AI; many things that used to rely on professional engineers can now be done by ordinary people. Code is being generated by AI. In a sense, everyone is becoming a programmer now.

This is the first time in human history that computing and intelligence really have the opportunity to be accessible to everyone, thus bridging the technological gap. Just like the electrical revolution and the Internet revolution, AI also requires a huge amount of infrastructure construction. In the future, the United States will build a large number of chip factories, supercomputer factories, data centers, and advanced manufacturing facilities. This is not only a technological revolution but also an opportunity for re - industrialization.

Electricians, plumbers, steelworkers, construction workers, technicians - your time is also coming. AI is not only creating a new computing industry but also opening a new industrial era.

Of course, AI will change all jobs. Some positions will disappear, and many tasks will be automated. But "tasks" and "the meaning of work" are not the same thing. AI can automatically generate code, but software engineers are still important because they can use AI to solve more complex problems; AI can assist in medical image analysis, but radiologists are still important because they are truly responsible for diagnosing diseases and taking care of patients.

AI won't replace the mission of humans; it will amplify human abilities. So, instead of saying "AI will replace you", it's more accurate to say that those who are better at using AI may replace you. Therefore, the real question we should think about is: Do we want our children to be empowered by AI or left behind by those who have mastered AI? The answer is actually very obvious. So, we should not only develop AI safely but also encourage more people to participate in AI.

AI should not only belong to those who can write code; it should belong to everyone.

Conclusion: Run, with Your Heart in the Work

Graduates of the Class of 2026, you are standing at the starting point of an extraordinary era. A new industry is being born, and a new era of science and discovery is unfolding. AI will accelerate the expansion of human knowledge and help us solve problems that we couldn't solve in the past.

We have the opportunity to bridge the technological gap, enabling billions of people to truly have computing and intelligence capabilities for the first time; we have the opportunity to promote re - industrialization and rebuild the ability to "build"; we also have the opportunity to create a future that is more prosperous, more powerful, and more hopeful than the world you inherited.

No generation has had more powerful tools and broader opportunities than you. And now, we are all standing on the same starting line. This is your moment to shape what happens next. So, run, don't walk. (So run, don't walk)

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote from CMU that I really like: My heart is in the work.

So, please truly put your hearts into your careers and create things that are worthy of your education, your potential, and the expectations of those who have believed in you long before the world recognized you.

Congratulations to you. Congratulations to the entire Class of 2026 of CMU.

One More Thing

Old Huang, who only has a master's degree, is now being wildly awarded "honorary doctorates" by global universities.

With this one from CMU, he's almost got a row of them (doge).

In today's environment, this is actually not surprising. After the AI era, it has almost become a fixed routine for global universities to invite tech CEOs to give graduation speeches and then hand them a doctor's robe.

The logic behind this is not complicated. On the one hand, schools want to enhance their influence by borrowing the aura of industry leaders; on the other hand, they also need the most symbolically significant figures of the era to represent the "future" that graduates are about to embark on.

And Old Huang is undoubtedly a particularly special one among them.

After all, the words of a person who has gone from being a dishwasher to the head of a 5 - trillion - dollar empire naturally carry more weight than others.

And finally, once again, don't forget to call him:

Dr. Huang.

Reference links:

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZh_0uRgrg4

[2]https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2026/may/nvidia - founder - ceo - jensen - huang - to - carnegie - mellon - university - graduates - shape - what - comes - next

[3]https://x.com/CarnegieMellon/status/2053562060009582949

[4]https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen - huang - graduation - speech - ai - jobs - anxiety - 2026 - 5

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