Will Nvidia's huge bet on artificial-intelligence chips pay off?

"WE'RE ALWAYS 30 days away from going out of business," is a mantra of Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder of Nvidia, a semiconductor company. That may be a little hyperbolic coming from the boss of a company whose market value has increased from $31bn to $486bn in five years and which has eclipsed Intel, once the world's mightiest chipmaker, by selling high-performance chips for gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). As Mr Huang observes, Nvidia is surrounded by "giant companies pursuing the same giant opportunity". To borrow a phrase from Intel's co-founder, Andy Grove, in this fast-moving market "only the paranoid survive". Constant vigilance has served Nvidia well.