Nvidia CEO Calls for Independent AI Infrastructure in Nations; Addresses Overblown Concerns

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday that every country needs to have its own artificial intelligence infrastructure to take advantage of economic potential while protecting its own culture.

"You cannot allow others to do it," Huang said at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Huang, whose firm has reached a $1.73 trillion stock market value thanks to its dominance of the market for high-end AI chips, said his company is 'democratizing' access to AI thanks to rapid efficiency gains in AI computing.

"The rest is really up to you to take the initiative, activate your industry, build the infrastructure as fast as you can." He said fears about the dangers of AI are overblown, noting that other new technologies and industries such as cars and aviation have been successfully regulated. “There are certain interests that want to scare people about this new technology, to mystify this technology, to encourage others to do nothing about that technology and to rely on them to do it. And I think that's a mistake."

Following a new round of US sanctions imposed on some of its AI chips in October, Nvidia said in November that it was working with customers in China and the Middle East to obtain export licenses for new products that comply with US regulations. The CEO did not address that issue on Monday. Nvidia is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on February 21.