When you watch a typical CEO keynote, you usually feel like you’re being sold to. You have your guards up and you are constantly looking for the holes in their argument.
When you watch Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, you don’t feel sold to. You feel informed. He walks you through a series of facts that seem undeniable.
How exactly does he do this?
Yesterday, I wrote about how he strips away the adjectives and builds his argument with nouns and verbs.
But having the right materials is only half the job.
You still need the blueprint.
Most leaders have the blueprint upside down.
They start with themselves.
They open the deck with: “Our Strategic Initiative 2026.”
Then they list their goals, their features, and their timeline.
Basically, they are showing you the pill before you even know you’re sick.
Jensen Huang builds it the other way around. He doesn’t start with Nvidia. He starts with the world. Which means, he doesn’t ask you to agree with his strategy. He forces you to agree with physics first. And once you agree with the physics, his strategy becomes the only logical conclusion.
It’s a 3-step formula. If you watch closely, he uses it in almost every major keynote.
1. The New Reality (the “broken” assumption)
The amateur says: “We are launching a new AI processor.”
Huang says: “General-purpose computing has run out of steam. Moore’s Law is dead.”
He identifies an External Shift (physics/market limits) that has fundamentally broken an Old Assumption (that CPUs will keep getting faster and cheaper). Put differently, he isn’t trying to sell an opinion. He is stating a fact that you cannot argue with.
2. The Necessity (the gap)
Now that the old way is dead, what does the world demand?
He says: “To keep scaling intelligence without bankrupting the planet, we need a new way to calculate. We need accelerated computing.”
He defines the New Capability required to survive in the New Reality.
(Note that he still hasn’t mentioned his product. He is defining the hole in the market so clearly that you are starting to beg for the plug.)
3. The Commitment (the only way out)
Only now, after he has broken your old assumption and defined the necessary fix, does he talk about himself.
He says: “That is why we built Blackwell.”
By the time he reveals the strategy, it doesn’t feel like a pitch. It feels like relief.
It feels like the only rational response to the reality he just described.
The pitch says: “Look at my great idea.”
The formula says: “Look at this broken world. Here is the only way to fix it.”
Let’s revisit the formula:
1. New Reality: [External Shift] has fundamentally broken [Old Assumption].
2. Necessity: This requires [New Capability] to function.
3. Commitment: [Our Strategy] is the only way to deliver [New Capability].
If you mess up step 1, step 3 is arrogant.
If you nail step 1, step 3 is inevitable.
Now, try it on your own strategy.
Don’t start with “We are implementing a Hybrid Work policy.” (That’s Step 3).
Start with: “We lost our last three
Senior Engineer candidates to
companies that offer flexibility” (Step 1).
Then: “We cannot build a world-class product with second-tier talent.” (Step 2).
Therefore: “We are implementing a
Hybrid Work policy.” (Step 3).
To put it in a nutshell: Don’t persuade people that your strategy is “good.” Prove that it is necessary.
Keep lighting the path,
Michael
PS: Read the full case study of how Jensen Huang communicates in my newest issue. If you use this link, you can access it free for a month, including the action guide, and cancel anytime.
