Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, claims that China can build major AI data centers in days
Claire Reid
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang claims China has a huge advantage over the US when it comes to building AI data centers, saying that the country can construct huge facilities in just days.
Nvidia’s chips have allowed AI technology to scale up at an impressive rate.
Earlier this year, the American company became the first to surpass a $4 trillion valuation, before quickly going on to top that with a $5 trillion valuation.
Recent reports suggest it could become the world’s first $10 trillion company, but now its CEO has somewhat of a warning for the US.
DISCOVER SBX CARS – The global premium auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
Nvidia says China can build data centers much faster
Nvidia CEO Huang said that when it comes to artificial intelligence, his company is ‘generations ahead’ of its counterparts.
However, he did highlight a couple of areas where he thinks China could perform far better than the US.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Huang suggested that when it comes to construction and energy capacity, China is ahead of America.
He said that building large-scale facilities, such as AI data centers, can take years in America but could be finished in days in China.
“If you want to build a data centre here in the United States, from breaking ground to standing up an AI supercomputer is probably about three years,” he said.
“[China] can build a hospital in a weekend.”
He also raised concerns about energy availability, adding that China has ‘twice as much energy as we have as a nation, and our economy is larger than theirs’.
Nvidia, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is one of a handful of tech giants that has invested heavily in new data centers in the US as AI technology becomes more widespread.
Huang believes China will ‘win the AI race’
Last month, Huang hit headlines after reportedly saying that he believed China would ‘win the AI race’.
Shortly after, the CEO quickly issued a revised statement backtracking on the reported comments but seemed to warn against complacency.
“As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in AI,” he said.
“It’s vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide.”
He made similar comments more recently, saying that ‘anybody who thinks China can’t manufacture is missing a big idea’.
DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalised homepage feed and to receive email updates.
