Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang took center stage at the annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, showcasing the company’s confident stance amid a transformative phase in the artificial intelligence industry.
As businesses shift focus from simply training AI models to leveraging them for in-depth responses, Nvidia aims to maintain its foothold despite rising competition. Huang defended Nvidia’s leadership in selling premium AI chips, especially against challenges posed by China’s DeepSeek, which has developed a competitive chatbot using fewer AI chips.
However, his reassurances fell short of convincing investors, leading to a 3.4% drop in Nvidia’s shares, a sentiment partly reflected in the broader chip market closing down by 1.6%.
Huang emphasized the underestimated computational needs created by advanced AI systems, pointing out that the demand for agentic AI and reasoning outpaces earlier expectations.
The crux of Nvidia’s strength lies in the decade-long investment in software tools that appeal to AI developers and researchers. This strategic positioning has led to a significant chunk of its $130.5 billion sales in the past year hinging on its high-ticket data center chips.
Despite its stock having quadrupled over the past three years riding the AI wave including breakthroughs like ChatGPT, investors seem wary of the near-term outlook.
Nvidia’s Next Move
Huang announced a series of new chip products, including the Blackwell Ultra GPU, set for release later this year, designed to handle larger AI models with enhanced memory capacity.
He assured that Nvidia’s chips uniquely meet dual objectives: efficiently processing vast user interactions and delivering rapid responses akin to web searches.
Nvidia is also looking ahead with chips in the pipeline: Vera Rubin for 2026 and Feynman for 2028, with Rubin expected to outperform Blackwell, which has faced production delays due to design issues. Despite these challenges, recent orders for Blackwell have been robust according to Nvidia.
In addition to chip innovations, Nvidia launched the DGX Workstation, a high-performance PC designed to challenge the dominance of high-end Apple Macs, to be manufactured by industry leaders like Dell, Lenovo, and HP.
Furthermore, new free software Dynamo was introduced to accelerate AI reasoning processes, alongside a significant partnership announcement with General Motors for its self-driving vehicle technology.
