Chris Malachowsky delivers 2026 University-Wide Commencement Address

Chris Malachowsky, a cofounder of NVIDIA, UF alumnus and the namesake for Malachowsky Hall, delivered the keynote speech at the 2026 University-Wide Commencement Ceremony held May 1 at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Here are his remarks as prepared for delivery. 

Thank you for that kind introduction. 

President Landry, members of the Board of Trustees, academic leaders, faculty, and staff – thank you for the privilege of having me speak here today. 

And to the Class of 2026 and their families: Congratulations. 

It is especially meaningful for me to stand here because this campus changed my life. I left with more than a degree. When combined with my upbringing, I left with the ingredients for a life of meaning, impact and substance. 

It was also here that I met my wife of almost 45 years, Melody – a girl raised here in Gainesville who is my best friend, as well as an extraordinary partner, mother, and grandmother. Meeting her turned out to be the single best outcome of my time at UF, and it shaped everything that followed. 

When I graduated, I didn’t stand out in any obvious way. I wasn’t exceptional compared to my peers. But I’ve come to understand that I had something going for me that mattered more. 

I cared. And I cared a lot. 

And that mattered. 

I cared enough to do things well – really well. 
I cared enough to keep learning and continue investing in myself. 
I cared enough to make commitments and to do whatever it took to achieve them. 
I cared enough to work well with others – and to care about their success too. 

Over time, this mattered far more than how I looked at the starting line. 
But caring alone is not enough. You also need momentum. 
The momentum I am referring to is what builds when you get started, even when you’re not ready, and you just keep going. 

My career began at Hewlett-Packard. I accepted the job over the phone from my parents’ kitchen in New Jersey. I was so excited, I barely remember what role I had accepted. 

Looking back, that first job really mattered for two reasons:
First, it got me started. I was launched.
Second, it taught me a pattern of behavior that I would use for the rest of my career – that of working really hard to learn everything I could about what mattered most in my role, and that of doing whatever it took to not just succeed, but to excel at all my assignments. 

That is how momentum builds. 

Before NVIDIA, I worked at HP and Sun Microsystems. I went from manufacturing industrial computers to designing some of the largest and most complex semiconductor devices of their time. 

Those steps weren’t planned. They weren’t linear. And that’s the point. 

If you’re worried about getting the “perfect” first job, let me offer some relief: You don’t need the perfect first step. You just need to take that first step. 

Momentum comes from movement – not perfection. And once you start, how much you care determines how far that momentum takes you. 

While at Sun, I met two people who would change my life: Curtis Priem and Jensen Huang. Eventually, the three of us started NVIDIA. 

That story sounds clean and deliberate in hindsight: UF to HP to Sun to NVIDIA. 

But it wasn’t. There were failures, wrong turns, and plenty of uncertainty. That’s not the exception. That’s the process. So don’t expect your life to unfold in a straight line. It won’t. That’s not failure. That’s growth. 

When you can’t see the whole path, don’t freeze.
Take the next step. Learn from it. Build momentum.  
Because momentum has a way of revealing opportunities that standing still never will. 

Our early days at NVIDIA were far from glamorous. Some of our initial ideas were sketched over pancakes at a local Denny’s. In fact, our first product was an abject failure. Yet we didn’t concede; we learned and evolved. We kept going! 

Years later, when NVIDIA crossed a one-trillion-dollar market cap, a journalist asked me whether I was ecstatic. 

I said, “Absolutely. I feel like the overnight success that only took 30 years in the making.” 

That line often gets a laugh, but it is also true. 

People see the milestone and miss the decades. 

They see the successful company or stock price and miss the years of preparation. 

They see the outcome and miss the persistence, the setbacks, the learning, the hard work, the risk and the long-term investments in caring that made it possible. 

That is where caring and momentum took me. I am anxious to see where your efforts take you! 

Now let me turn to something I know is on many of your minds. 
AI. 

There’s a lot of noise around it. Big claims, big concerns and lots of headlines.  

But it’s important to understand what’s actually happening. AI is not just another tool or app. It’s a new kind of computing capability – one that can learn, reason and do real work. 

I have spent much of the last year traveling the country talking about what the University of Florida has done and why I believe it’s a model for higher Ed that every state should adopt. 

UF did not sit back and wait for the AI era to arrive. UF leaned in. 
It built infrastructure. It built literacy. It built culture. 

It treated AI not as a niche topic for a few specialists, but as something that would touch every discipline and every aspect of our communities.  

That matters. It means that as graduates, you are not entering this next era as bystanders. 
You are entering it with a real head start, and with a chance to lead. 

You have been educated at a university that understood early that AI is not just a computer science topic. It touches practically all areas of the economy, society and government.  

That is why I am optimistic about this class. You are not walking into the AI era empty-handed. You are walking into it better prepared than most of your peers. 

My advice is simple: Think of AI as an amplifier and augmenter of your own abilities. 
Think of it as a digital assistant or colleague that, if used wisely, can extend what you’re capable of doing. 

It can help you learn faster, be more productive, and solve problems that would previously have been out of reach. 

And like every major technology shift prior, it will change how work gets done. That change can feel unsettling.  

But here’s the important part: 
AI does not replace your judgment. 
It does not replace your values. 
It does not replace your taste. 

Your critical thinking, judgment and creativity matter.  
Your empathy and ethics matter.  
In fact, these days, I’d argue that these qualities matter even more. 

Yes, tasks will be automated. That is not new. But most meaningful jobs are not just a collection of isolated tasks. The value they provide is most likely derived from some combination of the interpretation, assessment and judgment that is layered on top of the tasks. 

So, the right question is not: “How do I compete with AI?” 
The right question is: “How do I work with it so I can be more effective, more capable, and more useful?” 

Learn how to use it. 
Learn when to trust it – and when to question it. 
Use it to extend your abilities, not replace your thinking. 

If you do that, AI won’t diminish you. 
AI will extend you. 

Beyond this, I hope you’ll use the AI literacy UF helped you obtain to provide the benefit of that literacy to others, to care enough to explain, teach and share what you know about AI with them.  

Because the future we should want is not one where a few people master powerful tools and everyone else falls further behind.  

The future we should want is one where more people are empowered, more communities participate and more human potential gets unlocked. 

That, to me, is what caring looks like in the age of AI. 

Because in this next era, caring is not just about your own success. It’s about helping others keep up. 

So, graduates, here is the charge I want to leave with you: 
Care deeply and start moving. 
Care enough to keep learning as you go. 
Care enough to do the job in front of you well. 
Care enough to build momentum, even when the path isn’t clear. 
Care enough to not delegate your judgment. 
And care enough to bring others along. 

If you do that, you don’t need your whole life figured out today. You don’t need certainty. 
You need curiosity, discipline and the willingness to keep going. 

If there is anyone here wondering whether ordinary beginnings can lead to extraordinary places, let me offer myself as evidence. 

A Gator from the class of 1980. 
No master plan. 
No straight line. 

Just a person who cared long enough to be ready when the moment came.  
That can happen for you too. 

So go forward with confidence, gratitude and curiosity. 
Go forward ready to build, to learn and to contribute. 

And above all – 
Get going and go forward with care. 

Class of 2026, your families are proud of you. 
Your university is proud of you. 

And from one Gator to another – I am proud of you! 
Congratulations, and Go Gators!