"Nobody's Going To Do This For You" - NVIDIA CEO's Stark Warning on National AI Infrastructure
"Nobody's going to do this for you. You've got to do it yourself," NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declared in an unusually direct warning to national leaders about building sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure.
End of Miles reports that Huang's stark message came during a high-level discussion on sovereign AI and national infrastructure, where he emphasized the critical importance of countries developing their own AI capabilities rather than outsourcing them.
The real stakes of AI sovereignty
The NVIDIA founder framed the decision to build national AI infrastructure as a matter of economic and cultural sovereignty, with consequences that extend far beyond technological leadership.
"The stakes at play are basically the equivalent of modern digital colonization. AI isn't just computing infrastructure, it's also cultural infrastructure." Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
Huang described AI as a new foundational layer for nations, comparable to essential infrastructure like telecommunications, healthcare, and electricity. This "digital intelligence" layer, he argued, is too important to outsource without careful consideration.
The tech leader compared a nation's AI capabilities to a digital workforce that requires careful cultivation, similar to how companies onboard and develop human employees.
"Your IT department is going to become the HR department of your digital workforce. They're going to use these tools to onboard AIs, fine-tune AIs, guardrail them, evaluate them, continuously improve them." Huang
Economic impact too significant to ignore
Beyond questions of sovereignty, the semiconductor executive highlighted the massive economic implications of AI adoption, predicting it "will have an impact on GDP of every country in the double digits in the coming years."
Such economic potential makes AI infrastructure decisions strategic priorities for all nations, regardless of size. While acknowledging that implementation is challenging, Huang insisted the barriers to entry are decreasing rapidly.
"It's not as hard as you think it is. Could you imagine doing this five years ago? It's impossible. Could you imagine doing this five years from now? It'll be trivial. And so we're somewhere in that middle." The NVIDIA chief
Why nations must act now
The tech industry veteran dismissed excuses for delaying AI infrastructure development, characterizing AI as "the most consequential technology of all time, not just our time."
He urged world leaders not to admire the technology from a distance but to actively engage with it, warning that overadmiration often leads to inaction driven by intimidation.
Despite the challenges, Huang emphasized that technology development is accelerating, making AI systems easier to implement with each passing year. His message was clear and direct: "The number of excuses is running out."
"If you want to be part of the future and this is the most consequential technology of all time... if you come to the conclusion this is important to you, then you have to engage it as soon as you can." Huang
