NVIDIA CEO: AI Will Drive Double-Digit GDP Growth Across All Nations
Artificial intelligence will boost the GDP of "every country in the double digits in the coming years," according to NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who compared the economic transformation to the electricity revolution of the early 20th century.
The surprisingly concrete economic prediction came during a high-level discussion on national AI strategy where the tech executive warned that countries failing to build sovereign AI capabilities risk becoming economically dependent on their neighbors, writes End of Miles.
New economic dependencies
The semiconductor titan drew direct parallels between today's AI revolution and the economic reshaping that followed electricity's adoption, suggesting nations face a pivotal strategic decision about AI sovereignty.
"From an economic point of view, every nation needs to worry about it because if they don't manage to set up infrastructure, to set up their own sovereign capacities at the right place, that means this is money that might flow back to other countries," Huang said. "That's changing the economic equilibrium across the world." Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
The chip executive, whose company has seen its market value soar past $2 trillion on AI demand, warned that countries without domestic AI infrastructure would find themselves in a similar position as nations that didn't build electricity generation 100 years ago – forced to import essential technology.
"If you weren't building electricity factories, you were preparing yourself to buy it from your neighbors, which at the end of the day isn't great because it creates some dependencies." Huang
Beyond just another technology wave
The NVIDIA chief emphasized that AI represents more than just another important technology advancement – it constitutes a fundamental new layer of national infrastructure that governments must strategically address.
Unlike previous technological shifts, Huang argued that AI encompasses not just computing capabilities but also serves as cultural infrastructure that encodes a nation's values, language, and social constructs.
"Your country's digital intelligence is not likely something you would want to outsource to a third party without some consideration," the tech leader stated. "Your digital intelligence is just now a new infrastructure for you – your telecommunications, your healthcare, your education, your highways, your electricity. Now there's a new layer. This new layer is your digital intelligence." The NVIDIA founder
Sovereign responsibility
Throughout the discussion, the chip executive repeatedly stressed national responsibility for AI development, framing it as both an economic imperative and a matter of technological sovereignty.
He characterized AI infrastructure decisions as existential for nations, leaving little room for ambiguity about where he believes responsibility falls: "It's your responsibility to decide how you want this digital intelligence to evolve."
For countries still hesitant to fully engage with AI development due to challenges or uncertainties, the technology veteran delivered an unusually direct message:
"Nobody's going to do this for you. You've got to do it yourself." Huang
