BlackRock Chairman and WEF Co-Chairman Larry Fink (left) and NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang (right) speak during a panel discussion at the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. The conference, themed “The Spirit of Dialogue,” will bring together entrepreneurs, scientists, business and political leaders in Davos from January 19th to 23rd. Davos. Photo courtesy of GIAN EHRENZELLER/EPA
January 22nd (Asia Today) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said trillions more will be needed to build the energy and computing backbone for artificial intelligence, calling the push “the largest infrastructure construction project in human history.”
Huang made the comments Wednesday during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he said hundreds of billions of dollars have already been invested, but more capital is needed to complete core infrastructure such as power and computing power.
He likened AI infrastructure to a cake built from the bottom up, describing it as a five-layer stack starting with energy, then chips and compute, cloud data centers, AI models, and the application layer.
Huang said the investment cycle should ripple through the economy as demand for data center construction supports jobs in construction, manufacturing, electrical work and equipment, with some jobs paying six-figure salaries. He said the greatest value creation will ultimately come from top-tier applications and software.
He also rejected claims that AI spending resembles a bubble, saying the scale appears large because it requires building multiple layers of infrastructure at the same time, and argued that AI should be treated as essential infrastructure, like electricity or roads.
Huang also said that AI could help narrow the technology gap in developing countries, and emphasized the need to strengthen AI literacy through education.
Huang is scheduled to travel to China in late January to attend a company event ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, and may also travel to Beijing as Nvidia aims to restart China’s AI chip market, Bloomberg reported. According to Reuters, Nvidia declined to comment.
The trip reportedly took place after the Trump administration approved the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI chip to China under certain conditions, but China’s customs authorities have since directed officials to block the chips from entering the country, leaving a short-term restart of operations uncertain, Reuters reported.
— Asia Today reported. Translation by UPI
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