Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA)— The Hoover Institution’s new Only in America in-depth video interview series examines how American institutions, culture, and freedoms uniquely enable innovation and entrepreneurship.
The series features conversations between Hoover fellows and iconic American business leaders, scientists, and artists.
The debut episode, available June 10, features Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice engaging NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang in a candid discussion at the company’s Santa Clara campus. Huang discusses his journey as a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan, and how the ethos and institutions that foster and sustain economic freedom in America made NVIDIA’s success possible.
“Sometimes, the best way to think about what it means to be American, to have the American dream and to create the extraordinary life that we all live, is that there's an embodiment in a person and what they experienced,” Rice said. “And your story is one of those.”
“I am the embodiment of the American dream . . . I'm the first-generation immigrant with parents that gave up everything to be here with no way to fall back,” Huang said of his life’s path to date.
They sacrificed their whole life to build a life for their children so that we could have more opportunities than they did.
And for a country to create the opportunities for me and all the resources, the systems, the institution, the foundation that makes a company like NVIDIA to be possible, I am the embodiment of the American dream.”
Only in America asks a central question: Could success stories like Huang’s and others have happened anywhere else? Through intimate conversations, the series explores the institutions, talent ecosystems, and cultural traditions available uniquely in the United States that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to transform ideas into world-changing companies.
In their more than thirty-minute conversation, Rice and Huang discuss how a chain of unlikely events brought NVIDIA into existence.
After leaving their parents in Thailand to head to America at nine years old, he and his ten-year-old brother were once tasked with navigating Chicago’s O’Hare airport to make a connecting flight from Washington to Kentucky. Alone.
They speak of the business environment that enabled Huang to attract the brightest computer scientists in the world and secure early investment from Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures. Today, NVIDIA reports annual revenues of more than $200 billion and market capitalization of more than $3 trillion.
The conversation examines American property rights that incentivize wealth creation, dynamic capital markets that enable venture investing, and vigorous competition within legal guardrails. Huang reflects on how his parents sacrificed everything to eventually reunite with their children in America, with no way to fall back.
Future episodes will feature extended discussions with guests including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, C3.ai founder Tom Siebel, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, concert cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Fei-Fei Li, founding co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI).
Each of these conversations will explore what makes risk-taking uniquely rewarding in America. The series highlights how the United States leads the world in technological and artistic innovation, focusing on the unique American governing institutions, educational opportunities, and cultural traditions that help attract and propel talent from across the globe.
This landmark new series will also highlight how American liberty, risk tolerance, market dynamism, and institutional design fuel breakthrough innovation and allow individuals to flourish.
At a time when the principles that enabled America’s rise are in question, Only in America makes the case, not with theory, but with the lived stories told by remarkable Americans, that freedom and the special sauce of an unparalleled American system can still generate greatness.
As America marks its 250th anniversary, this series artfully illustrates the unique mix of institutions, dynamism, and culture that have enabled an extraordinary output of wealth, technological innovation, and might to form, despite the overwhelming odds that come from being only one nation of hundreds.
The series will be distributed directly through Hoover Institution digital channels, including YouTube, Hoover.org, and its stable of social media platforms.
The first episode featuring Rice and Huang’s discussion debuts Wednesday, June 10, 2026, on the Hoover Institution’s YouTube channel and at Hoover.org.
For more information, please contact Jeffrey Marschner, assistant director of media and government relations, at jmarsch@stanford.edu or 202-760-3200.
