“America” was the first word uttered during Nvidia’s big event on Tuesday, setting the tone for CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address.
The AI chip giant began its October GTC event in D.C. with a pro-America video highlighting various US tech achievements throughout history. During his speech, Nvidia CEO praised Donald Trump and other US officials by name.
“It’s hard not to get sentimental and proud of America,” Huang said as he walked onstage following the sizzle reel.
Huang stressed that the US cannot afford to have the foundation of the next big technological boom built elsewhere and deals and product initiatives, which he said would help ensure that doesn’t happen.
“We’re going through a platform shift,” he said. “That platform shift should be the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get back into the game. For us to start innovating with American technology.”
Earlier Tuesday, Nokia announced that Nvidia would invest $1 billion in the telecommunications company. Nokia will use Nvidia’s technology to help develop its 5G and 6G software.
Huang framed the investment as an example of how to “bring telecommunication technology back to America.”
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“Telecommunications is the backbone of the economy,” he said. “And yet, ever since the beginning of wireless, where we defined the technology, we defined the global standards, we exported American technology around the world can build on top of American technology and standards. It’s been a long time since that has happened.”
During his speech, Huang effusively praised Trump and Energy Secretary Christopher Wright. Haung said Trump’s energy policies deserved credit for ensuring massive data centers will have enough energy to power them.
“This industry needs to grow. It needs energy to advance, and we need energy to win,” Huang said. His recognition of that and putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth completely changed the game.”
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Huang announced that Nvidia will partner with the Department of Energy to build seven new AI supercomputers. He said Wright deserved praise for his “surge of passion to make sure America leads in science again.”
Trump has previously praised Huang and Nvidia’s technology, but thus far, the two sides have yet to announce the finalization of an agreement to allow Nvidia to sell some of its chips in China. Previously, export controls prevented Nvidia from selling its H20 chips in China, which has dragged on its business.
Wall Street is closely watching the talks given how large a market China is for Nvidia. Last fiscal year, the Chinese market was responsible for $17 billion of Nvidia’s revenue. In a recent interview, Huang said his company’s market share in China is effectively “0%.”
“We went from 95% market share to 0%, and so I can’t imagine any policymaker thinking that that’s a good idea, that whatever policy we implemented caused America to lose one of the largest markets in the world,” Huang said during an interview with Citadel Security.
Shares of Nvidia rose 1.7% during Huang’s remarks.
Addressing the D.C. crowd in his closing remarks, Huang echoed one of Trump’s go-to phrases.
“Thank you all for your service and making America great again,” said the Nvidia CEO.
