What the Booming AI Industry Could Mean for the Bay Area

KQED's Forum

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