Nvidia, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) chips, will build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), CEO Jensen Huang said.
In his keynote speech at the company’s GTC event in the US capital, Washington, DC, Huang said on Tuesday that the company’s AI chip bookings have reached $500 billion.
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The first company to be valued at more than $4 trillion, Nvidia is at the heart of the global deployment of AI. While the company is forging deals around the world, it is also navigating the U.S.-China trade war, which could determine which country’s technology is most used around the world.
As investors seek clarity on what chips the tech company can sell to China’s vast market, Mr. Huang praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies in his keynote speech, announcing new products and deals. These included networking technology that allowed Nvidia AI chips to work with quantum computers.
The supercomputers Nvidia is building for the DOE will help maintain and develop the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Supercomputers will also be used to research alternative energy sources such as nuclear fusion. The DOE’s largest supercomputer will be built with Oracle and include 100,000 Nvidia’s Blackwell chips.
“Putting national weight on promoting energy growth has completely changed the situation,” Huang said. “If this hadn’t happened, we could have been in a bad situation. I want to thank President Trump for that.”
Nvidia stock rose 3.3% to $197.82 Tuesday afternoon.
new deal
Nvidia also announced a new agreement with Finnish communications equipment maker Nokia targeting the AI communications market. Nvidia, which plans to invest $1 billion to acquire a 2.9% stake in Nokia, has also introduced a new product line called Arc designed to work with communications equipment.
Nokia shares soared 20.86% on the news, having last peaked in late January 2016.
Huang said NVIDIA will work with Nokia to improve the power efficiency of the company’s base stations for 6G, the next generation wireless data technology.
“We will be able to adopt this new technology and upgrade millions of base stations around the world,” Huang said.
The CEO said NVIDIA will have a total of $500 billion in reservations for Blackwell and Rubin chips over the next five quarters.
Nvidia also announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies, a company that works closely with the U.S. government. But the focus of Nvidia’s partnership will be on Palantir’s commercial operations, where Nvidia will help companies such as home improvement retailer Lowe’s solve logistics problems faster. Such corporate activities have been Intel’s stronghold for many years.
Nvidia has announced a new self-driving car technology platform called Hyperion. Huang said Nvidia is partnering with Uber to build a robotaxi network. “This will be a new computing platform for us, and we expect it to be quite successful,” Huang said.
“All of these announcements demonstrate that Nvidia can expand its reach beyond its core data center customers,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson. “While these projects pale in comparison to the capital spending by hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta, they could create new markets for Nvidia in the future.”
pursue a government job
Huang took to the stage in front of a packed conference room as President Trump continues his tour of Asia this week, ahead of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Thursday. The flow of advanced technology between the two countries is likely to be at the center of trade talks, with access to Nvidia chips being a key issue.
Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event will be held in Washington, DC for the first time, marking the company’s growing collaboration with the US government and contractors concentrated around the nation’s capital.
The U.S. government is focused on expanding AI and its computing power. On Monday, NVIDIA competitor Advanced Micro Devices announced a $1 billion partnership with the DOE to build two supercomputers that will tackle big scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatment to national security.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden cracked down on sales of Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips to China, but President Trump wavered in his second term, initially restricting exports of Nvidia’s AI chips designed for the Chinese market, then reversed course in July.
Huang argued that Nvidia needs access to about $50 billion in potential sales from the Chinese market to fund U.S.-based research and development to maintain its advantage.
