Jensen Huang: "Don’t imagine how hard it’s going to be and let all of that turn into anxiety and…"

At Y Combinator's Startup School 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told aspiring founders that this is an outstanding time to launch a company, driven by the AI boom. He cautioned that worrying about future challenges can become an obstacle, urging entrepreneurs to face problems with optimism rather than fear. Huang, 63, also shared that early in Nvidia's history, after a wrong technology bet, he bought textbooks to help his engineers learn. He acknowledged his long-running concern that Nvidia could fail, but said the ability to keep learning is more important than having all answers immediately. The remarks come as U.S. business applications hit a record high in early 2026, with other figures also encouraging startups during uncertainty.