Jensen Huang outlines the next stage of AI What to expect at Nvidia GTC 2026

Welcome to Eye on AI with AI reporter Sharon Goldman. In this edition: A preview of Nvidia GTC…The end of computer programming as we know it…Atlassian cuts 10% of its workforce to push AI…and AI money floods US midterm elections.

As basketball fans gear up for March Madness next week, AI industry watchers are looking ahead to late-winter frenzy. It’s the annual developer conference for Nvidia GTC, currently the world’s most valuable company.

For the past two years, I’ve been heading to San Jose for something much more than just a bunch of Nvidia believers. The highly anticipated moment developed when CEO Jensen Huang took the stage in front of about 20,000 attendees at a packed SAP Center and took the equivalent of dozens of 3-pointers during his keynote address. There were loud cheers every time the NVIDIA news was broken. This year, there will also be a three-hour “pregame” show featuring CEOs from multiple Nvidia partners.

And that’s just the first day. This event has become so popular that last year we had a hard time finding space to meet people and couldn’t even sit for a while.

Although I won’t be able to attend in person this year, I plan to not only watch the announcements, but also participate in the game, which turns out to be “Which black leather jacket will Jensen wear?”

There are already previews, strong hints, and rumors pouring in about what will be shared at GTC. A sample is shown below.

Turn AI into a “5-layer cake.” On Tuesday, Nvidia published a blog post by Huang called “AI is a five-layer cake.” In his blog, Huang argues that AI relies on five layers: energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and applications, and that all five need to scale together to enable large-scale construction of AI across the economy. It’s no coincidence that Nvidia sits in the middle of that stack, connecting most of the layers together.

Further investments and partnerships. Nvidia has invested in dozens of AI companies since last year, deploying billions of dollars across its ecosystem. This week, ahead of GTC, the company announced it will invest $2 billion in AI cloud company Nebius and back former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s startup Thinking Machines, which is powered by more than 1 GW of Nvidia chips.

An open source model with strategic goals. Following this week’s announcement of a new open source model, Nvidia is reportedly investing up to $26 billion in open source models, and the company is rumored to be unveiling something called NemoClaw, an open source AI agent platform for enterprises, at GTC. Rather than competing with cutting-edge AI labs, this strategy is focused on allowing developers to continue developing within Nvidia’s software ecosystem, and ultimately driving demand for more chips.
Ambition for autonomous driving. Nvidia also continues to expand its efforts in self-driving cars, with its chips and software platform increasingly being used by automakers to build self-driving systems. Yesterday, the company released a video showing Huang taking a two-and-a-half hour ride around San Francisco in a Mercedes using the Alpamayo self-driving system.

So, here’s more AI news for you.

sharon goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@SharonGoldman

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AI in news

The end of computer programming as we know it. new new york times magazine article, author Clive Thompson interviewed and surveyed over 70 software developers from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and small startups. How rapidly improving AI coding tools like ChatGPT and Claude are reshaping the software development profession. Some developers say these tools have dramatically increased their productivity, shifting their role from writing line-by-line code to directing, reviewing, and debugging AI-generated output. At the same time, this technology is raising concerns about the future of programming jobs, especially entry-level jobs that have traditionally been the entry point into the industry. While many experts believe that human engineers will continue to be essential for monitoring, architecture, and problem-solving, the article argues that AI has already begun to redefine what it means to be a programmer.

Atlassian cuts 10% of workforce to ‘self-fund’ investments in AI and enterprise sales. cloud-based software company atlassian announced that it will cut about 10% of its workforce, or about 1,600 people, in a restructuring under pressure from the rapid rise of AI tools and a plunge in stock prices. According to CNBC CEO mike cannon brooks The company said the job cuts are aimed at improving its financial position while redirecting resources to AI development and enterprise sales. The investor Claude and other coding assistants. While the company is pushing its own AI products, including its Rovo platform, which currently has about 5 million monthly users, Cannon-Brookes acknowledged that AI is reshaping the types of skills and roles the company needs. The move reflects a broader trend across the technology industry, where companies are cutting jobs while increasing investment in artificial intelligence.

AI money is already influencing midterm elections. According to new washington post Artificial intelligence companies and investors are reportedly pouring billions into the 2026 midterm elections in an effort to influence how artificial intelligence technology is regulated. Organizations backed by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have already spent more than $185 million on campaigns across the country and are seeing early success. In recent primaries in Texas and North Carolina, all but one of the 20 candidates who received AI-related funding won. Much of the spending is going to candidates who could shape AI policy, reflecting an escalating political battle over whether regulation should be handled primarily at the federal level or through state-by-state rules. The surge in spending also comes as the public faces growing skepticism about AI, particularly around the expansion of energy-intensive data centers, and stakes are also rising over how lawmakers will approach the technology.

McKinsey is rushing to fix its AI system after hackers exposed the flaw. of financial times Hackers using an AI agent reported that they were able to access millions of internal messages and system details from Lilli, an in-house AI platform used by the consulting giant. McKinsey & Companyrevealed potential vulnerabilities in the AI tools the company rapidly deployed. Cybersecurity startup CodeWall announced that its automated agents gained read-write access to the system within two hours, revealing 46.5 million chat messages, tens of thousands of user accounts, and hundreds of thousands of AI assistants and workspaces, but McKinsey said no customer data was compromised and the vulnerability was quickly patched. The incident highlights the growing security risks as companies integrate AI tools more deeply into their operations, and how AI agents themselves are increasingly likely to be used to discover and exploit weaknesses in corporate systems.

Pay attention to AI numbers

80%

That’s the number of physicians now professionally using AI, which has doubled since 2023, according to a new study from the American Medical Association’s Center for Digital Health and AI. While the average number of use cases per physician will increase from 1.1 in 2023 to 2.3 in 2026, the most common use of AI by physicians is centered around summarizing medical research and documenting clinical care.

Also from research:

Physicians are gaining confidence in AI. By 2026, more than three-quarters of physicians believe AI will improve their ability to care for patients, up from 65 percent in 2023. The most anticipated benefits are diagnostic accuracy and work efficiency.
Many doctors are cautiously optimistic. 40% of physicians have a balanced attitude of being equally excited and concerned about AI, citing patient privacy and the health of the patient-physician relationship as their top concern.
Most doctors are concerned about declining skills. 70% of physicians see AI as a tool to automate tasks that cause work-related burnout. However, 88% are concerned about potential skills loss, especially for those with less than 10 years of experience.