Are we only solving problems, or are these also interesting markets? Because if they're not interesting markets, it's not sustainable. Nvidia went through about a decade where we were investing in the future, and the markets didn't exist. At that time, the only market was computer graphics. For ten to fifteen years, the markets that fuel Nvidia today just didn't exist.
How do you keep going with all the people around you—our company, Nvidia's management team, all the amazing engineers creating this future with me, your shareholders, your board of directors, your partners—when you're taking everybody with you and there's no evidence of a market? That is really, really challenging. The technology can solve problems, and research papers are being made possible because of it, which is interesting, but you're always looking for that market.
Nonetheless, before a market exists, you still need early indicators of future success. In the company, we have a phrase: key performance indicators, KPIs. Unfortunately, KPIs are hard to understand. I find KPIs hard to understand. What's a good KPI? Many people, when they look for KPIs, go to gross margins. That's not a KPI; that's a result.
What you're looking for is something that's an early indicator of future positive results, and as early as possible. The reason for that is because you want that early sign that you're going in the right direction. We have this phrase called EOIFS—early indicators of future success. It helps people, because I was using it all the time, to give the company hope that, hey, look, we solved this problem, we solved that problem.
