Jensen Huang is the man of the moment on a massive mission: to strike AI infrastructure deals with Europe.
The Nvidia CEO owned multiple rooms as he rubbed shoulders with world leaders at London Tech Week and VivaTech in Paris.
Business Insider was there for his talks at both events. Here’s what to know about the European tour of the man whose company is powering the AI boom.
Nvidia is all in on ‘sovereign AI’
One phrase was top of mind for Huang this week: “sovereign AI.” The term describes a country using its own AI infrastructure within its own borders, from data to hardware to the models themselves.
The idea is to create technological self-reliance for AI, versus using data centers located in other countries or models developed by foreign companies.
“Sovereign AI is an imperative — no company, industry, or nation can outsource its intelligence,” said Huang while announcing a partnership with French startup Mistral to provide Nvidia chips for its homegrown AI infrastructure platform.
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It’s not a new concept, nor the first time Huang has talked about it. But Huang mentioned it during every talk and Q&A in London and Paris, and announced deals with local cloud providers in the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.
For Nvidia, sovereign AI is also an opportunity to sell more of its chips, particularly as China, as Huang said during last month’s earnings call, is “effectively closed” to US chip firms because of export controls.
“There’s nothing wrong with renting an AI, it’s no different from hiring a contractor into your company,” said Huang on Wednesday during a VivaTech keynote, wearing his signature black leather jacket. “But you still need to have some ability to develop your own intelligence.”
Huang’s ‘rockstar’ status isn’t going anywhere
Few business executives can steal the limelight from world leaders, but Huang is one of them.
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At London Tech Week, crowds arrived early to grab a spot for his fireside chat with the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer. There wasn’t an empty seat at Olympia’s main stage as the Nvidia boss talked up the UK’s AI potential. “I make this prediction — because of AI, every industry in the UK will be a tech industry,” Huang said Monday to a captivated audience.
Two days later, Huang was similarly praised for France’s tech ecosystem. During an Nvidia GTC keynote during VivaTech, Huang was in his element showing off the innards of some of his company’s latest server technology, interacting with robots, and bigging up the future of quantum computing.
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But he seemed just as at home alongside France’s President Emanual Macron and Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch during a fireside chat that same day, getting laughs from the audience and remaining the center of attention. VivaTech attendees who spoke with BI were positive about Huang. One described him as the ideal CEO, while a VC said, “I love that guy.”
Nvidia’s share price may have had some bumps in February and March before recovering, but Huang’s stock in the tech world seems just as high as when he signed MacBooks, chips, and even a woman’s top at a Taiwan tech conference last year.
Huang remains a resolute AI optimist
AI’s impact on jobs, particularly in white-collar roles like software development, has set alarm bells ringing for some tech leaders.
Last month, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, broke ranks to warn that AI could soon wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and governments were “sugarcoating” the threat.
But Huang’s messaging was consistent throughout his European tour: AI will make the world a better place, even if there’s disruption.
“AI is the greatest equalizer of people,” he said during the press briefing. “If you have somebody that you wish just were a better person, tell them to use AI.”
It’s an unsurprising stance for the CEO of a company whose $3.5 trillion market cap stems from its position as the most important provider of AI chips.
Huang had particularly strong words for Amodei.
“I pretty much disagree with almost everything he says,” Huang said during a press briefing at VivaTech on Wednesday. “He thinks AI is so scary, but only they should do it.”
An Anthropic spokesperson disputed Huang’s characterization of Amodei’s stance to BI, saying that Amodei has “advocated for a national transparency standard for AI developers,” including Anthropic, and that he stands by his concerns about AI’s impact on jobs.
It was clear in both Paris in London that Huang sees AI as an upskilling opportunity rather than a job destroyer.
“Anybody can learn how to program an AI,” Huang said at London Tech Week on Monday. “The new programming language is called human.”
Additional reporting by Robert Scammell.
