57. Let’s be more level-headed!
“No. Why is Jensen Huang here, and unannounced?”
There was no way in hell that Mr. Huang was coming to our company.
“Maybe he got a little upset when we sold a bunch of stock to the market.”
“No, but does that mean he’s suddenly coming after the shareholder’s company?”
“He seems to have a bit of a temper, what can I say? I see him, and he’s all up in arms about going after the boss?”
“What are you going to do when he sees me?”
“Do you want me to call the team leader, Harry?”
“Ugh, who am I to be beaten up?”
“Heh, heh, heh, heh, that’s true.”
“Let him in. I know it’s rare, but you can’t just turn away a big shot like that, can you?”
“Understood, boss.”
It’s not like I’ve done anything wrong, but there’s no reason I can’t see him.
It’s just that I can see why, and it makes me cringe.
Moments later, an Asian man in a black leather jacket walks into my office.
He’s beady-eyed and imposing.
He’s short, though.
“Welcome, Mr. Huang! I’m Alex Kang, the head of Karma Investments.”
“I apologize for the unexpected visit. As you know, I’m Jensen Huang from Nvidia.”
“Yes, I’m well aware. Mr. Huang. Why don’t you have a seat?”
“If you’ll excuse me.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang was surprisingly calm.
“What would you like to drink? Whiskey or tea?”
“No liquor, sir, but I’ll have tea.”
“Then I have longjing tea, is that okay?”
“Hmm? You have longjing tea?”
“hahahaha! I enjoy tea, so I have several types of tea. I also have several longjing teas, and among them, the West Lake Longjing Tea from Hangzhou is the best.”
“Ooh! West Lake Longjing!”
“As you would expect.”
With familiar skill, she took out a set of tea utensils, quickly boiled water, and served the tea to Jensen Huang.
“Hmph, oh, this is really good tea!”
“hahahahaha! It is, isn’t it? I’ll give you a bucket when you leave, please take it.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kang.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang’s stiff face relaxed a bit.
It was nice to see that they were from the same culture after all.
“Yes, Mr. Huang. What brought you to my company so suddenly? What would you have done if I wasn’t here? Didn’t you at least call ahead?”
“Humph, that’s because I got a little carried away, and I apologize for that.”
“hahahaha! That’s okay, why did you want to see me anyway?”
“I came to see you because I was really curious.”
“About what?”
“Well, I thought we were getting along really well with Karma Investments. They didn’t interfere or nag, unlike other major shareholders, and they even delegated voting rights to me, so I thought they were the best possible partner.”
Indeed, our company does not interfere at all, even after gaining majority shareholder status.
Or should I say, we didn’t have to.
So, in the eyes of the executives, we must have looked like angels.
“Hmmm, we did, but why?”
“So why are you doing this all of a sudden? Why are you selling your stake in our company at this time, after years of friendly relations?”
The heat is on again.
American company executives are extremely sensitive to stock prices.
If they don’t keep it up, or at least maintain it, they can be removed by the board at any time.
Founders are no exception.
So, didn’t Steve Jobs get kicked out of the company he founded and hang around for a while?
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang was no exception to that rule.
As the founder, Jensen Huang has a 3.6% stake in the company, which is never reassuring.
Of course, given his stature, he’s probably not going to get kicked out unless there’s some kind of stock market crash or business difficulty, but you never know.
Who knew Steve Jobs was going to get kicked out?
So, when the stock price was falling due to the GPU inventory buildup caused by the crash in cryptocurrency demand and the disappointment of the new GeForce 20 series, and he was fuelling the decline by selling us out, he was pissed, and apparently he had enough and exploded and came running here.
But that’s your business, Jensen Huang.
“You were wondering why we’re selling our Nvidia stock?”
“Yes. You’ve been so good to us, why are you suddenly doing this?”
I guess it’s the law of douchebaggery, right?
You’ve been so nice to me, why are you suddenly doing this?
“Mr. Huang.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“What kind of company is our Karma Investment?”
“What? What company are you talking about?”
“I mean, what does my company do?”
“Uh, isn’t it an investment firm?”
“Why does an investment firm invest?”
“To make a profit, right?”
“So, do you think it’s wrong for an investment firm to sell its holdings because the stock it’s invested in has gone up too high and is probably about to crash?”
“No, it’s perfectly normal business behavior.”
“I think we’ve answered Mr. Huang’s question sufficiently?”
“Really?”
What is this atmosphere?
What’s so natural about it?
“Well, then—.”
“No, this isn’t it!”
As expected, it was too natural.
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang, who had been stammering, “Uh, huh?” suddenly realized the strangeness and cried out that it wasn’t right.
“No, no, no, no, what are you saying?”
“Who says I don’t know what an investment company is, and I’ve come all the way here to ask you why you’re suddenly disposing of your well-held stocks?”
“Didn’t I just tell you that I made a profit, and I’m getting rid of it because I think it’s about to go down? No, so you’re holding onto your stock because you’re crazy when your investment company is showing a loss? I’m not Warren Buffett, I’m not the kind of guy who buries his money for ten, twenty years.”
“But you did, didn’t you, and you had to sell at this time, almost all of it?”
“Well, you still have 30% of your original stake, right?”
“Awww, that’s frustrating!”
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang was ranting about being frustrated, but what am I supposed to do?
Isn’t it like we’re not even friends?
No, even if we’re not friends, an investment is an investment.
It’s an investment company that makes profits by making cold judgments.
“Mr. Huang.
“Yes, Mr. Kang.”
“What’s all the fuss about? If we step down as majority shareholders, Mr. Huang won’t be penalized, right?”
“No. Isn’t it one of the basics for a manager to protect the share price?”
“Is it because you think Mr. Huang’s position will suffer, just in case?”
“No, it’s not—. Rather than that—.”
Huh!
So that’s why he’s making all this fuss.
From nob le mt l. co m
Jensen Huang is notoriously greedy.
No, I don’t think he was greedy, I think he was more of a control freak or power freak.
So, he doesn’t seem to be particularly fond of board changes.
“Phew, Mr. Huang, I sold my shares in anticipation of Nvidia’s stock price crashing in the short term, but I didn’t basically abandon you and your vision for Nvidia.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m saying that although I’ve temporarily given up my position as a major shareholder, I’ll be back sooner or later. I really do see a bright future for Nvidia. And I don’t doubt Mr. Huang’s management abilities at all.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m not one for bullsh*t, and within a few months I’ll be back buying Nvidia stock with even more money, and I’ll be an even bigger shareholder than before, right?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
“Well, then, Mr. Huang has nothing to worry about, because once we become the majority shareholder, we will trust you completely.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kang.”
“Now, please go home. Next time, be sure to call us.”
“Ah! Are you sure about that?”
“Of course. Here’s a business card with my direct phone number on it. I’m glad we met, and we’ll see each other often in the future.”
“hahahahaha! Well, it’s worth the effort, so please call me Jensen.”
“hahahahaha! You can call me Alex, too.”
With that, I sent Jensen Huang on his way, a bucket of West Lake Longjing tea in hand.
Tough, tough.
This is no kid.
“Seeing Jensen Huang on his way, I guess the story went well, boss?”
“Uh, what’s the difference between good and bad? It’s a pretty obvious story anyway, I just mollified him and sent him on his way.”
“Good job. It’s not like we’re walking away from Nvidia completely, and no good can come from playing nice with a big guy like Jensen Huang.”
“Yeah, I know, that’s why I made nice and sent him back. Oh, and did I mention we have 30% of Nvidia stock that we haven’t sold?”
“Well, we sold another 4% today, so we’re down to 26%. Being the Jensen Huangs and us on the inside, we expect it to crash sooner or later, but the market hasn’t been too bad yet, so we’ve been able to burn through it without too much trouble. We’ll burn through another 6% sometime tomorrow and call it a day.”
“Hmmm—.”
I decided to keep the 20%, so if I’m going to sell 6% more and call it a day, do I really need to keep the 20%?
Initially, we considered the market shock, and Nvidia was going to be in it for the long haul anyway, so we told them to keep the 20%, but we didn’t think it was necessary.
Even if it’s 20%, that’s a lot of money.
Basically, the way I treated Nvidia was very different from AMD.
With AMD, I happened to own over 50% of the company, and Lisa, the CEO, is a complete professional, so I had a sense of ownership.
But Nvidia is different.
Even though the founder, Jensen Huang, had a small stake, his position was so strong that no one thought it was his company, not ours.
So, AMD decided to sell only 30%, and Nvidia decided to keep 20%, but when I was talking to Jensen Huang earlier, I felt something myself.
I’m going to hold it for the long term, but at the end of the day, Nvidia is someone else’s company, and I’m just a passing investor.
It would be foolish to leave 20% on the table when I could be making more money.
“John!”
“Yes, boss.”
“That Nvidia stock, don’t keep that 20%, sell it all, because I think the real crash is going to start in the next few days, and I mean ASAP.”
“What? Did you say that because Jensen Huang went on a rampage?”
“Eh, how do you know about people?”
“I guess you did?”
From nob le mt l. co m
John’s eyes widened horizontally, and I realized that he actually thought that?
No, how does this guy look at people and think—.
“John, it’s not like that, it’s just what I felt when I was talking to Jensen Huang, and what are you doing holding twenty percent of a stock that you’re going to have to buy back sooner or later anyway, how much money is that?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “and if it’s going to get cut in half, which we think it will, we’re losing about $2 billion.”
“I mean, why would we do that? Let’s just sell it all off!”
“Hmph! Got it, boss!”
From nob le mt l. co m
John replies cheerfully, then turns to look at me.
“What, why are you looking at me like that?”
“hahahahaha, because I think you’re a real investor now, boss.”
“…”
Although I thought about it, I was just playing around with the prayer beads and judging their rise and fall, not really thinking about investing in them.
Let’s be more rational!