# Ian Buck built Nvidia's secret weapon

> The engineer who created CUDA faces a new challenge: defending Nvidia's dominance as competitors close in and the company enters life after Jensen Huang.
- Title: Ian Buck built Nvidia's secret weapon · Business Insider
- Summary: The engineer who created CUDA faces a new challenge: defending Nvidia's dominance as competitors close in and the company enters life after Jensen Huang.
- Keywords: ian buck, nvidia, cuda, jensen huang, ai computing, gpu, amd, deepseek, software platform, Business Insider
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/ian-buck-nvidia-moat-cuda-2025-6
- Author: Emma Cosgrove
- Published: 2026-11-12T17:46:14.751+00:00
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: ian buck, nvidia, cuda, jensen huang, ai computing, gpu, amd, deepseek, software platform, business, technology
## The architect of Nvidia's moat
Ian Buck, forty-eight, has spent more than two decades at Nvidia building CUDA, the software platform that became the foundation of the AI boom. He started in two thousand four with just two libraries.
## From graphics to general computing
At Stanford, Buck connected multiple graphics processing units to push them to their limits. He became fixated on proving GPUs could do anything, not just graphics like Quake and Doom.
## Brook becomes CUDA
Buck developed Brook, a programming language applying GPU power beyond graphics. Nvidia saw its potential and hired him. He worked with hardware expert John Nickolls to build the framework.
## A bet that cost millions
CUDA allowed developers to use existing C language to harness GPU parallel computing. Huang insisted every chip be compatible even though hardly anyone used it. Nvidia lost millions for over a decade.
## The payoff arrives
When ChatGPT launched, Nvidia was already powering the AI computing revolution. CUDA became the platform from which Nvidia jumped to ninety percent market share in AI computing.
## CUDA's explosive growth
CUDA started with two libraries. Today it supports more than nine hundred libraries and artificial intelligence models. Each library corresponds to an industry using Nvidia technology.
## Buck thrives in intensity
Buck works in Nvidia's notoriously rigorous environment under Huang, which eschews one-on-one meetings and makes disagreements public. Those who know him describe him as gregarious but capable of intensity when goals are on the line.
## The storyteller and the mechanic
Buck moves between rapid technical lines and simple layman's descriptions. He describes proteins as complicated three D squigglies in your body. Storytelling ability is particularly important in Nvidia's upper ranks.

> complicated 3D squigglies in your body
## CUDA's mission nearly complete
Buck's original mandate was to make the GPU work for every industry. There are now hundreds of CUDA libraries targeting weather forecasting, medical imaging and many other fields.
## Competition arrives at GTC
Even as Buck spoke at GTC in twenty twenty-five, competitors convened by TensorWave held an event entitled Beyond CUDA with more than twenty-four presenters discussing how to overcome the CUDA moat.
## AMD's catch-up effort
AMD is making an explicit effort to catch up on the software side of AI computing, but industry analysts say they are not there yet. Demand for human CUDA engineers continues to grow.
## DeepSeek's CUDA mastery
DeepSeek spooked markets with cheap reasoning AI achieved with less compute. Buck described the Chinese team as one of the best CUDA developers out there, having gone deep into CUDA to squeeze out gains.

> one of the best CUDA developers out there
## Talent becomes the battleground
Nvidia is trying to maintain dominance through talent.Buck is a draw for developers who can work in his extremely complex sandbox.There are more jobs requiring CUDA skills posted in twenty twenty-six than in twenty twenty-five.
## Huang's departure changes everything
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO. Colette Kress was appointed interim CEO by Nvidia's board. Industry analysts have expressed concern that Nvidians may be more likely to leave now.
## Buck in the succession conversation
Lip-Bu Tan, who became Intel's CEO in twenty twenty-five, told Business Insider that Buck was one of Huang's three right-hand men. Prediction markets have identified Buck as a potential internal replacement for CEO.
## Key takeaway

Ian Buck, who spent two decades building CUDA, now faces pressure to defend Nvidia's AI computing dominance as competitors emerge and the company searches for a new CEO.