Nontech Firms Like It in Nvidia's Orbit --- Executives in finance, energy, other fields tell of benefits from ties to the company

"Corporate enterprises in industries like banking aren't typically the direct customers of the high-performing artificial-intelligence chips that catapulted Nvidia into the highest ranks of tech royalty -- but they say simply associating themselves with the AI giant comes with big benefits.

Foremost among those is the ability to attract in-demand AI talent, an area that cutting-edge tech companies, not traditional enterprises like banks, typically dominate.

Nvidia's GTC event, short for GPU Technology Conference, kicked off this week in San Jose, Calif., and has been dubbed a sort of "AI Woodstock." Chief Executive Jensen Huang on Monday gave more detail on Nvidia's next generation of chips, code-named Blackwell, from the event venue, a sports arena with a seating capacity of about 11,000.

Companies speaking there, including energy company SLB, auto manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover and financial services companies HSBC, Capital One and Wells Fargo, all say burnishing their tech credentials and getting in front of talent are among the reasons they are participating.

"Presenting at conferences and events gives us an exposure to a type of profile of people that we have struggled to find in the past," said Shashi Menon, vice president of digital technology at SLB.

The information-technology talent market is more wide open than it has been in previous years, in part thanks to layoffs from big tech and companies increasingly leaning on automation.

But snagging AI roles remains competitive, said Chintan Mehta, chief information officer and head of digital technology and innovation at Wells Fargo. Mehta said having a presence at big conferences like GTC is definitely helpful. He is speaking at a Tuesday session on enterprise AI in banking.

"The usual perception in the market would be that 'Oh, it's a bank, it's not doing a whole lot of stuff,'" he said. Being at an event like GTC helps the company dispel that narrative, Mehta said. "People come talk to you, they know you as an individual, they know the work that's going on," he said.

These companies' work efforts may be paying off. Salil Sethi, founder of ProsperCircle, a company that tracks data on product management roles, said he is seeing more tech talent venture into nontech sectors. Of the nearly 400 new product management openings posted last Friday, he said, about 25% were at tech companies whereas the remaining 75% were in nontech enterprises.

At Shell, vice president of computational science and digital innovation Dan Jeavons said working with companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft can attract tech talent who may have never considered working in the energy sector.

Conferences are a key opportunity to tell a company's technology story, said Ian Glasner, HSBC's group head of innovation, ventures and digital partnerships. The bank is speaking at GTC in a session about quantum machine learning.

Glasner said, "From a recruitment perspective, it really makes a difference."

Jacob Alexander Graham, director of global strategic partnerships at Jaguar Land Rover, said being part of GTC not only allows the automaker to show off its innovations with the tech community, but also helps it "drive engagement opportunities with the wider ecosystem and attract talent."

As it happens, some tech workers do make the switch. Among the attendees at this week's event is Prem Natarajan, chief scientist and head of enterprise AI at Capital One. He joined the company from Amazon.com, where he led the company's Alexa AI unit. Natarajan said he was attracted to Capital One because he wanted to develop technology to solve challenging problems in the financial sector -- and he said he believes a lot of up-and-coming talent feels the same.

Natarajan, who is speaking at a GTC session about generative AI in financial services, said he considers Capital One a technology enterprise. But spreading that narrative widely isn't easy. "These kinds of things take time," he said. "This kind of reputation, rightfully, cannot be built overnight."" [1]

1. Nontech Firms Like It in Nvidia's Orbit --- Executives in finance, energy, other fields tell of benefits from ties to the company. Bousquette, Isabelle.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Mar 2024: B.4.