Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday announced a flurry of new partnerships and dismissed concerns about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, saying the company’s latest chips are on track to generate half a trillion US dollars in revenue.
The Blackwell processor, Nvidia’s flagship AI accelerator, and the newer Rubin model are fueling an unprecedented surge of sales growth through next year, Huang said at a company presentation in Washington.
The event — Nvidia’s first GPU Technology Conference held in the US capital — highlighted the partnerships that the company is forging across the industry.
Photo: Bloomberg
The chipmaker is teaming up with Uber Technologies Inc, Palantir Technologies Inc and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, among others, aiming to ensure its technology remains at the heart of the AI frenzy. Nvidia unveiled a new system to connect quantum computers with its AI chips.
Nvidia’s tie-ups also reflect its increasingly global ambitions. The company is planning a 1 billion euros (US$1.16 billion) data center in Germany with Deutsche Telekom AG and just announced a US$1 billion investment deal with Nokia Oyj. Huang also is poised to unveil pacts with Samsung Electronics Co and Hyundai Motor Group when he visits South Korea later this week.
“We have now reached our virtuous cycle, our inflection point,” Huang told thousands of attendees at a convention hall blocks from the White House. “This is quite extraordinary.”
Huang also emphasized the ways his company is helping advance US President Donald Trump’s economic agenda for building US manufacturing. The Nvidia chief delivered his remarks days before Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to finalize a trade deal that would ease years of trade tensions. Previous restrictions have effectively blocked Nvidia’s prized AI chips from China
Huang praised Trump’s commitment to winning the global competition in AI, but urged careful engagement with China because of the country’s massive software developer base and its growing technology capabilities.
However, much of the presentation focused on the AI industry reaching a turning point: Huang said that AI models are now powerful enough that customers are willing to pay for them — and that in turn would justify the costly build-out of computing infrastructure.
The remarks helped ease fears of an AI investment bubble, sending shares of Nvidia up 5 percent to a record closing high of US$201.03 in New York on Tuesday.
Nvidia extended gains to more than 8.5 percent in Asia after Trump said he would speak with Xi about the company’s Blackwell chip. Trump touted the chip as “super duper” and said that Huang recently brought a version of the accelerator to the Oval Office.
“I don’t believe we’re in an AI bubble,” Huang said during a Bloomberg Television interview after the presentation. “All of these different AI models we’re using — we’re using plenty of services and paying happily to do it.”
The Santa Clara, California-based company expects to ship 20 million units of its latest chips. A previous generation — Hopper — only accounted for 4 million units in its whole lifetime, Huang said.
Huang said that his projections for the Blackwell and Rubin chips did not include sales in China.
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