Nvidia CEO Defends AI Investments, Says 'Risk is Low'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is pushing back against criticism that his company's growing financial support for AI companies is artificially inflating demand and sales. In an interview with CNBC, Huang argued that Nvidia's investments in frontier AI labs are necessary due to the high capital requirements of building these companies.

Huang pointed out that it takes tens of billions of dollars to get one of these startups off the ground, a level of investment that is unprecedented. He claimed that Nvidia wants to be both an equity investor and a partner to these leading AI companies, providing them with the necessary capital to scale up their business.

Nvidia has become flush with cash from its status as the leading maker of chips for large language models, and it has used this windfall to invest in several companies across the AI ecosystem. The company's latest results showed a 117% increase in data center revenue to $89 billion, with a projected 70% revenue growth in fiscal 2028.

Huang also addressed concerns that Nvidia could be left on the hook if one of its investments struggles, arguing that the company's computing infrastructure can be redeployed across different customers and workloads, limiting its exposure. 'The money we've invested is going to generate tremendous returns,' he said. 'I think the risk is low.'