Irimajiri Shoichiro (入交昭一郎), the former Sega president who is said to have rescued Nvidia during its management crisis in the 1990s, said in an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun that Jensen Huang should have been put back on the stage. He also discussed the background to the joint development between Sega and Nvidia and the decisions made afterward.
Irimajiri Shoichiro (入交昭一郎), who is said to have rescued the management of global semiconductor giant Nvidia during its crisis, discussed the qualities required of top executives at Japanese companies through his account of CEO Jensen Huang. During Nvidia's management crisis in the 1990s, Irimajiri is said to have proposed buying Nvidia shares in an attempt to help the company make a comeback.
At the time, Sega Enterprises was considering technology using Nvidia semiconductors as it developed a 3D machine to compete with the PlayStation. Although the joint development progressed, technical issues arose, including gaps on the screen, and the decision was ultimately made to adopt technology from another company.
Irimajiri looked back on his exchanges with Jensen Huang over the termination of the joint development, saying that Huang asked, “How much would it take to start over?” and that the answer was “$5 million.” Since development funds remained, the idea of buying Nvidia shares was also discussed.
This article is based on an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun, and Irimajiri currently runs a consulting company.
The foregoing account presents the circumstances at the time and the views of those involved in chronological order.