Chapel Hill, North Carolina — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he has no financial need to keep working, but the rapid development of artificial intelligence is giving him little reason to consider retirement.
Huang said he does not want to miss what AI could deliver over the next 10 to 15 years, describing the technology as a force that has dramatically increased the ambitions of companies, researchers and entrepreneurs.
“I’ve been working a long time and surely I don’t have to work, but I don’t want to miss, I’m definitely not going to miss the next 10, 15 years,” Huang said during a fireside chat with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“The ambition of the industry, the ambition of my colleagues, my own ambition has really been supercharged,” he added.
Huang predicted that AI could dramatically accelerate the pace of work, allowing projects that once took a decade to be completed in a year and year-long efforts to be finished in a matter of months.
“What do I expect in the next five, ten years? Things that take ten years are going to take one. Things that take one will take a month,” he said.
The Nvidia chief said AI is also giving individuals, businesses and countries the ability to tackle problems on a scale that would previously have seemed unrealistic.
“It is now possible for average humans like ourselves to think that we can make an impact on a hundred trillion dollar industry,” Huang said.
He added that some innovators are discussing the possibility of generating between $20 trillion and $50 trillion in economic benefits worldwide, reflecting what he described as a new level of ambition enabled by AI.
Huang urged countries to approach the technology with optimism rather than fear.
“This is the time when you have to feel enlightened, inspired, supercharged, lifted, because you now have this incredible technology behind you,” he said.
He also rejected predictions that AI will simply eliminate human workers. While the technology will automate certain tasks and skills, Huang said people will continue to provide the purpose, context and meaning behind their work.
Huang described AI as a potential equalizer because people can increasingly interact with computers using ordinary language rather than specialized programming skills.
Lutnick echoed that point, saying AI could effectively put advanced expertise within everyone’s reach.
“You now can have… A PhD in everything. That’s right. At your fingertips,” Lutnick said.
“You are that person now. Right? Everybody is that person now,” Huang responded.
Lutnick praised Huang as “an American treasure” and said Nvidia is helping move the United States toward technological possibilities that once belonged largely to science fiction.
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its President and CEO since the company’s creation. Nvidia began as a graphics technology company before its chips became central to the development and operation of modern AI systems.
Born in Taiwan, Huang moved to the United States as a child and studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University and Stanford University. Under his leadership, Nvidia has grown into one of the world’s most valuable technology companies. (Source: IANS)
