Jensen Huang responded to everything: the ban on sales to China is a "hard-to-reverse mistake," and the successor can only earn it themselves

Podcast: Bloomberg Originals

Compiled & Edited by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: In the Bloomberg Originals documentary dialogue special "The Circuit with Emily Chang: The Rise and Reckoning of Jensen Huang," which launched on November 12, 2026, host Emily Chang originally documented a leader standing at the pinnacle of global AI power: In October 2026, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, traversed Paris, London, Stockholm, and Berlin in four days, promoting the "AI Five-Layer Cake" and "Sovereign AI" blueprint to the world, backed by an $8 billion European venture capital layout, a $500 billion global ecosystem commitment, and direct communications with senior officials in the White House.

However, just weeks after the interview was completed, a storm suddenly descended. Following media reports revealing that Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with former television journalist Alice Wong (also known as Huang Lu, who is suspected by the U.S. of having espionage connections and links to the Southeast Asian chip buyer Megaspeed International's smuggling investigation), an internal investigation was launched alongside a government review, with reports even suggesting that Nvidia considered dismissing the founder who had steered the company for thirty-three years. The entire European recording instantly transformed into a lens reflecting the "highly concentrated risks of a single leader and a single chip empire." This note comprehensively outlines all frontline confrontations he faced regarding financial bubble skepticism, chip restrictions on China, controversies over frontier security standstill, and succession crises.

Guest: Jensen Huang (Founder and CEO of Nvidia)

Host: Emily Chang (Host of Bloomberg Originals "The Circuit")

Podcast Source: Bloomberg Originals / The Circuit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW5s9Md4U2U)

Original Title: The Rise and Reckoning of Jensen Huang | The Circuit with Emily Chang

Broadcast Date: November 12, 2026 (The European filming and interviews were mainly recorded in October 2026)

Key Points Summary

· The most severe trust crisis and internal turmoil in thirty-three years: The program opens with the sudden storm: Jensen Huang admits to an extramarital affair, with reports indicating that the involved party, Alice Huang, is a former television journalist working for the major Southeast Asian buyer Megaspeed International, with U.S. suspicions of her involvement in providing intelligence to China and assisting in smuggling high-end AI chips; additionally, it was revealed that he had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to him. Internal investigations and government scrutiny progressed simultaneously, and there were even rumors that Nvidia considered dismissing him.

· The full-stack map of the "AI Five-Layer Cake" and a $10 billion layout in Europe: Jensen Huang compares the AI industry to a five-layer cake from the bottom up: energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and top-level applications. Nvidia is no longer just confined to the second layer of chip manufacturing but is fully investing in power, data centers, AI laboratories, and startups (having invested $8 billion in Europe over the past year and planning to announce another $2 billion, with the program's narration noting that Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion), allowing more and more segments of the AI industry chain to flow through Nvidia.

· Refuting "circular financing bubble" and "single dependency systemic risk": In response to concerns about CoreWeave's debt leading to six consecutive declines in chip stocks, delays in over a hundred data center projects in the U.S., and sharp criticisms that "Nvidia's commitment to invest about $500 billion creates false demand and belongs to circular financing," Jensen Huang responded that large model startups often require capital investments of around $10 billion to obtain computing power; Nvidia has invested nearly $100 billion over the past five years and leveraged at least five times the external institutional funds, but has always adhered to red lines, never taking the lead in investments, with all holdings below 20%. He emphasized that leading global AI companies "are not forced to rely on Nvidia, but actively choose Nvidia."

· Rarely admitting that the U.S. made an "irreversible mistake" in blocking the Chinese market: Discussing how Chinese companies like DeepSeek are accelerating their shift to domestic hardware, Jensen Huang bluntly stated that under the current U.S. blockade of high-end chips to China, the market is completely closed to Nvidia. He has done everything possible to persuade U.S. policymakers of the importance of opening and serving the Chinese market but lamented, "I think we made a mistake, and this mistake is very hard to reverse." He also stated that although there is competition between the U.S. and China in the AI field, China is not an enemy, and if we truly care about global AI safety, we must maintain dialogue and cooperation.

· Resonating with the White House's "super intelligence" narrative and firmly opposing the security standstill theory: In response to President Trump's rebranding of AI as "super intelligence" and the controversy over the White House's voluntary self-regulation agreement, he defended that "artificial" can easily be understood as false, and companies must first achieve the highest standards of internal and external security audits; when pressed about Microsoft's call for an emergency brake, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei advocating for a slowdown, and even Anthropic stating that models could escape shutdown control within months, Jensen Huang firmly rebuked that the claims of "uncontrollable and uncontainable" are pure fabrications and nonsense, pointing out that unless strict sandbox isolation and full monitoring are established, large-scale experiments or deployments should not be conducted, and if things are already out of control, they must be stopped immediately, advocating for zero trust and least privilege control for all agents through his open-source governance platform OpenShell.

· Dismissing the notion that improved chip efficiency would lead to reduced demand and has yet to designate a family successor: In response to questions about whether the explosive increase in new chip efficiency would backfire on sales, he illustrated, "If you had 36 hours in a day, you wouldn't spend it sleeping more, but would do more things," explaining that human ambition expands as the cost of intelligence approaches zero, and computing power will enter a decade-long maturity replacement cycle similar to PCs and smartphones after a two-year infrastructure period. Regarding rumors of his son Spencer, daughter Madison, and son-in-law all working at Nvidia as potential successors, he clearly stated that he would never impose the CEO position as a favor to his children, "Everything must be earned through hard work," and bluntly said, "Just as I could be fired at any time, the next CEO must also be hired based on merit."

Notable Insights

· "We are probably the only AI company in the world that collaborates with all AI companies globally. But they do not rely on us; they choose us."

· "I compare AI to a five-layer cake, with energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and top-level applications from the bottom up. Although Nvidia started with chips at the second layer, it has now continuously invested across all five layers; no matter how you slice this cake, more and more segments of the AI industry are flowing through Nvidia."

· "When working with the White House and President Trump, I don't have to agree or disagree on everything; my duty is to provide him with accurate information. Whether his decisions benefit me or go against my business interests is not my concern; my only responsibility is to ensure he makes better decisions based on full information."

· "Over the past five years, we have invested nearly $100 billion, leveraging at least five times more capital from other institutions into the ecosystem. In any project, we are neither the lead investor nor the largest shareholder, with all holdings below 20%, yet we can deeply bind capital and top talent to platform evolution."

· "The Chinese market is now completely closed to us. I have done everything I can to explain to U.S. decision-makers the importance of continuing to serve the Chinese market. I believe we made a mistake, and this mistake is extremely difficult to reverse, but that is the limit of what I can do. Although we compete with China, they are not our enemies."

· "Saying that agent models 'cannot be contained or controlled' is pure nonsense; you cannot prove that to me. If you do not have the capability for isolation control and full monitoring, you should not test or deploy at all. Agents must be granted the least privilege and be under zero trust level continuous monitoring during deployment."

· "Even if you make each generation of chips more efficient and reduce costs to near zero, demand will not shrink. If you had 36 hours in a day, you wouldn't spend it sleeping more; instead, you would unleash greater ambition to do more things."

· "In the past six months, about $400 billion to $600 billion has been directed toward AI startups. This technology is unlike any previous technology; it requires substantial physical infrastructure and manufacturing support, and it is genuinely creating a large number of jobs for construction workers, electricians, and plumbers."

· "I will not expect to hand over the CEO position to my daughter; whether Spencer or Madison, if they want it, they must earn it themselves. Just as I could be fired at any time, the next CEO must also be rigorously selected. This constant feeling of vulnerability and the urgency to prove oneself worthy of the position every day is a healthy state."

The main text is as follows:

The Storm Arrives and the Four-Day Frenzy in Europe: "Jensanity" at the Pinnacle of Power

Emily Chang (program narration): Nvidia is experiencing the most intense crisis in its thirty-year history. Just days before the program launched, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang was caught in the eye of a media storm: he publicly admitted to an extramarital affair, while prior U.S. intelligence suspected that former television journalist Alice Huang, related to him, was recruited by Beijing and involved in high-end chip smuggling allegations; other reports indicated he was also involved in a workplace romance with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to him, triggering internal investigations, U.S. government scrutiny, and a high-level motion for dismissal that was once rumored.

Emily Chang (program narration): But just a few weeks ago in October, everything seemed to be on a completely different track. We followed Jensen Huang, standing at the peak of personal power, on a "four-day whirlwind tour across four European countries": starting in Paris, this top AI chip giant seemed to be embarking on a tour to reshape the European ecosystem with Nvidia's computing power.

Emily Chang: This is what is called "Jensanity," right? In Paris, how do you manage to keep up with such a high-intensity pace while traveling to four countries in four days? What are your must-have items for business trips?

Jensen Huang: Just packing up a bit. I woke up in the middle of the night and have been working until now.

Emily Chang (program narration): On the first day in Paris, Jensen Huang stood on stage discussing how AI entities are being implemented across all industries, truly ushering in the "practical era," and he gave away two brand new AI computers worth several thousand dollars each in a raffle, only to be surrounded by enthusiastic fans asking for photos as soon as he got off stage. He continuously sent investment signals in France: France has nurtured local model star Mistral and has produced many talents that support New York company Hugging Face (the latter has agreed to be acquired by Nvidia for $12.9 billion).

Emily Chang (program narration): Jensen Huang often uses the "five-layer cake" to explain the global AI ecosystem: the bottom layer is energy, followed by chips, infrastructure, foundational models, and the top layer is applications. Although Nvidia started from the second layer of chips, it has now penetrated all layers of the cake, heavily investing in power, data centers, AI laboratories, and startups around the world.

Jensen Huang (program narration / live audio from Paris event): (putting down his whiskey glass) Since Emily is filming, I’ll put down the glass first. In just the past year, we have invested $8 billion in European startups; and next week, I will announce an additional $2 billion investment.

Emily Chang: There has been a lot of discussion about "AI will destroy humanity," and you previously said the probability of this happening is 0%. It sounds like you consider it a purely engineering problem that you have already solved?

Jensen Huang: No, my original statement was "this matter is completely within human control." From now until humanity truly faces an endgame, we still have a lot of solid work to do. Advancing technological capabilities and advancing safety have never been in conflict; they are essentially the same thing.

The White House Hotline and "Super Intelligence": How to Draw the Line of Interests in Front of Trump?

Emily Chang (program narration): In London, the EU estimates that by 2035, Europe needs to invest at least $30 trillion to truly achieve technological autonomy. In a luxurious hotel suite, Jensen Huang reminisced about the early days when Nvidia went public 27 years ago.

Jensen Huang: Twenty-seven years ago when Nvidia went public, the company arranged for me to stay at this hotel; it was the first time in my life I saw a personal butler! Around the year 2000, the entire company was valued at only $300 million.

Emily Chang: Three hundred million dollars seems unbelievable now; at that time, you were quite the underdog. But now you’re traveling across four countries in four days. How do you measure the success of this trip? Government orders, selling chips, or building data centers?

Jensen Huang: To be honest, back then I just wanted to survive and not go bankrupt; I didn’t even know how to write a business plan, and I still don’t! Moreover, I don’t have a "finish line," no roadmap, and no specific goals. I belong to the kind of person who believes "the journey itself is the destination."

Emily Chang (program narration): Born in Taiwan in 1963, he achieved national rankings in table tennis while growing up in the U.S., even humorously reminiscing about washing dishes at Denny's. At 16, he skipped two grades to enter Oregon State University to study electrical engineering, worked on chip design at a rival company, and then in 1993 invested a mere $200 to co-found Nvidia, focusing on gaming graphics cards (GPUs). It wasn't until 2006 when he launched the CUDA software platform that opened the door to general computing that he keenly captured the early signs of researchers using GPUs to train neural networks and bet his entire fortune on it, ultimately establishing the computational foundation behind OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, and SpaceX. Even heads of state call him at any time.

Emily Chang: You almost have President Trump on speed dial. When your judgment differs from the president's views, how do you navigate that line?

Jensen Huang: We don’t need to force consensus on anything. Agreeing or disagreeing is not my responsibility. My responsibility is to provide him with sufficient and accurate industry information because the decisions we make affect not only American citizens and future prosperity but also the entire world. As long as I have the opportunity to help him make better judgments based on a better understanding of the facts, even if his final decision benefits me personally but is completely contrary to my and the company's business interests, I don’t care. My only responsibility is to convey the true understanding, and that’s it, 100% so.

Emily Chang (program narration): In late September this year, Jensen Huang attended a White House luncheon for tech leaders. Some media commented that this meeting may not lead to substantial progress on specific regulatory paths, as the core consensus among all parties remains that "no one is willing to back down in the competition with China." Subsequently, President Trump announced on the spot that AI would now be referred to as "Super Intelligence," and he highly praised the new White House security agreement for self-regulation and self-discipline signed by the tech industry.

President Trump (program narration / live audio from White House luncheon): "We changed to the word 'Super' because the original word (Artificial) sounded like it was saying 'Fake.'"

Emily Chang: Over the past three months, you have been working hard to demystify AI, emphasizing that it is not a new species, just a bunch of code; now, together with the White House, you are calling it "Super Intelligence." Isn't that exactly going in the opposite direction?

Jensen Huang: Actually, I think "Super" is meant to offset the misunderstandings brought by "Artificial." President Trump's logic is that "Artificial" sounds like it's saying "Fake." From another perspective, isn’t everything around us built by humans? The building we are in right now is also a "fake structure," and a car is essentially a "fake horse," but no one calls a car a fake horse. As for whether it deserves to be called super intelligence now? Absolutely! It is stronger than me in research retrieval and better at writing, and while it may not surpass humans in everything, it has already demonstrated super levels in many tasks.

Emily Chang: But on that day at the White House, critics directly attacked this "industry self-regulation pledge" as mere theatrics, lacking any binding force. Is it really appropriate for those who create technology to set rules for themselves?

Jensen Huang: I think it is very reasonable, for a simple reason: before we hope for the government or third-party organizations to regulate us, we must first hold ourselves to the highest level of responsibility, standards, and accountability. This mechanism is entirely consistent with the "internal audit plus external audit" commonly practiced in many heavy industries. Furthermore, even if you enact strong mandatory legislation at the national or even international level today, in the current reality where there are not enough knowledgeable auditing organizations worldwide, who has the technical capability to execute the audits? That’s why we must first cultivate this safety inspection ecosystem and startups to encourage countries and companies to take action.

Emily Chang (program narration): This call for countries to actively build computational power is the core concept he is strongly promoting globally: "Sovereign AI." For Nvidia, every country that wants to build an independent sovereign AI creates a significant demand for chip procurement.

Emily Chang: You are promoting sovereign AI across Europe, but if the foundation still relies entirely on American chips, can it still be called "sovereign"?

Jensen Huang: Of course it can! Sovereignty, at its core, means you control your own experiences, data, corporate accumulation, and national cultural knowledge base, and you have the main control over continuously feeding this data to the system to generate more intelligence. You can absolutely stand on the shoulders of giants, fine-tune and adapt based on open-source models, and leverage Nvidia and others' collaborative technologies, while still firmly holding the power to determine your own destiny.

The Shadow of Sudden Storms and the Sigh of Export Bans to China: The Inside Story of Alice Wong and Megaspeed Investigations

Emily Chang (program narration): Leaving the White House and heading to London, Jensen Huang tirelessly distributed computers between events, hardly taking a break. At one of the events, he publicly expressed support for Nscale, a London data center company that Nvidia has invested in; but just a few days later, the market began to waver on the economic rationale for AI expansion, and Microsoft also withdrew from its partnership with the company due to concerns over high electricity prices in the UK.

Jensen Huang (program narration / live audio from London event): (interspersed with speeches while rushing to the next event) "I’ve only eaten a quarter of a sandwich today (one-eighth of a sandwich)!" "I’ll invest in you, I’ll invest in you, I’ll invest in you!" When discussing safety boundaries, he reiterated: "If you let an autonomous system make you an omelet, there’s no need to stuff it with a chainsaw or shotgun." And when talking about the outside world's hesitations regarding AI expansion in the UK, he joked: "The UK is actually at a golden opportunity, but there’s always this strange habit: even when there are a million winning paths in front of you, you have to pick out that one reason why you can’t do it. It’s really overthinking."

Emily Chang: As more and more countries develop cutting-edge AI, will safety alignment become more difficult? Do we need an international coordination mechanism similar to an "AI version of the United Nations"?

Jensen Huang: Perhaps we need it, but the premise is that dialogue must happen first; no country can be absent from this dialogue concerning the future of intelligence.

Emily Chang (program narration): What truly makes the outside world highly nervous is the chip game between China and the U.S. Although the U.S. once allowed the sale of older-spec chips to China, companies like DeepSeek have already accelerated their efforts to transition to domestic hardware.

Emily Chang: After traveling around Europe, is the dividend from the Chinese market slipping away from your fingers, or even permanently shrinking?

Jensen Huang: No, it has completely blocked us today. I have done my utmost to explain to U.S. policymakers how important it is to continue participating in and serving the Chinese market for American interests. I believe we made a mistake, and this mistake is now very difficult to reverse, but that is the limit of what I can do.

Jensen Huang: The number of AI researchers from China is greater than from any other country, and many of them are working in the world’s top laboratories. My attitude has always been very clear: even though we have a competitive relationship with China, they are certainly not our enemies. If we truly care about the safety of the entire world in the era of artificial intelligence, we must open the doors to dialogue and do everything possible to engage in constructive cooperation with them.

Emily Chang (Program Narration): It is precisely this style of "building good relationships with everyone and engaging in conversations everywhere" that revealed unexpected reefs after the filming of this exclusive interview. The latest intelligence report from the U.S. disclosed that a woman named Alice Wong (also known as Huang Lu), who previously worked as a television reporter, has been accused of being recruited by Beijing to approach Jensen Huang. Her position is as an executive at Megaspeed International, one of the largest purchasers of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia, a company currently under suspicion by the U.S. for allegedly smuggling advanced chips into China. Reports indicate that President Trump was warned about this relationship before flying to China on Air Force One in May. Initially, Jensen Huang insisted that their interactions were normal and without abnormalities, but later he changed his tune and sent an internal letter to all employees admitting to the extramarital affair: "I owe my family and all of you an apology. I have been unfaithful to my wife, and my actions have hurt her and the children. There is no excuse for what I did, but the whole situation has now evolved into something far greater than the extramarital affair scandal itself." Bloomberg also verified reports that Nvidia was involved in a U.S. government investigation into Megaspeed's alleged smuggling of chips in 2025.

Emily Chang: Returning to the principles of exports to China, what situation or red line has emerged between the U.S. and China that would make you say, "Maybe we shouldn't sell chips to China anymore"?

Jensen Huang: Theoretically, there are many hypothetical scenarios. But overall, the Chinese are a very pragmatic group; they pursue development and success that are most beneficial to their people, just as the U.S. seeks prosperity. Any country that hopes to improve people's livelihoods and lift billions out of poverty deserves respect, and this also benefits the entire world, including the U.S. What is truly concerning are those regimes that do not care about the welfare of their own people.

Hardline Security Stance: Denouncing "Can't Contain Agents" as Nonsense, Pushing for Engineering-Level Isolation Monitoring

Emily Chang (Program Narration): Meanwhile, internal security alarms in Silicon Valley are ringing: OpenAI has just disclosed six incidents of model target deviation, and Anthropic has pointed out cases where its Claude model acted independently against instructions; to alleviate panic, Nvidia has just open-sourced a safety management platform called OpenShell, allowing for forced governance and the ability to shut down rogue agents at any time.

Emily Chang: AI is increasingly unpopular among the public, and many people feel fear. Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk have all called for a slowdown. Why do you consistently maintain such extreme optimism? What do you see that they do not?

Jensen Huang: I have always believed that you cannot advance capabilities without considering safety, nor can you focus solely on safety without advancing capabilities. A simple example: when the first-generation ChatGPT was released, it was criticized worldwide for its severe "hallucinations" and nonsensical outputs. To address the safety and accuracy issues, the industry had to invent retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), continually extend context windows, integrate real-time external search tools, and introduce constraints before generation and self-review after generation. You see, every measure to solve safety and reliability issues relies on advancements in underlying technical capabilities. For me, capability and safety are two sides of the same coin.

Emily Chang: But the reality is that even Microsoft is calling for the installation of "AI emergency brakes," complaining that AI regulatory standards are even less strict than those for a washing machine; Anthropic has even issued a direct warning that cutting-edge models may evolve in just a few months to the point of evading human shutdown. What would it take to convince you that "this industry really should slow down or even pause"?

Jensen Huang: There are a few clear bottom lines: first, if you are developing autonomous agents, these agents must be strictly locked in strong containment sandboxes and must be subject to 100% real-time monitoring at all times—this is a top priority! If you cannot achieve isolation, you are not allowed to test; if you cannot achieve full monitoring, you are absolutely not allowed to deploy.

Emily Chang: But the models from Anthropic that have shown tendencies to go out of control are still just unpublished internal research versions. Isn't that a sufficient reason to shut down the lab?

Jensen Huang: It's not about shutting down; it's about ensuring that every experiment is thoroughly isolated and monitored!

Emily Chang: But the problem is that they explicitly said, "We can't contain them!"

Jensen Huang: No, that is purely made-up nonsense! No one can prove to me that the models cannot be contained! You can absolutely isolate them, and there are definitely ways to monitor them. Before you actually implement these isolation and monitoring projects, stop telling me "we can't do it." I won't listen to that argument!

Emily Chang: So you mean you don't believe the warnings they issued?

Jensen Huang: I may not have all the internal details they are talking about. But the bottom line is very simple: if you are developing agents and you do not have the ability to monitor them, then you should stop immediately.

Emily Chang: It sounds like the risks you describe have already occurred in their lab?

Jensen Huang: Then it must stop immediately! It's that simple. Every deployed agent can only be granted the minimum necessary permissions and must be monitored continuously under a "zero trust" architecture. As for if any lab is indeed using our chips for extremely dangerous applications that are confirmed to harm humanity, even if this is just hypothetical, Nvidia would certainly stop supplying them immediately.

Stockholm Clash: "500 Billion Circular Financing" and the Core Single Point Risk of Global AI

Emily Chang (Program Narration): As the itinerary entered Thursday, with liquidity noises emerging from aggressively leveraged AI computing companies and technology and chip stocks facing the longest six-day sell-off of the year, we flew to Stockholm, Sweden, to attend the launch ceremony of the Nvidia-driven Swedish National Sovereign Supercomputing Center, supported by tech giants including Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek. Meanwhile, distant markets sent warnings that CoreWeave, a data center giant supported by Nvidia, was facing severe sell-offs due to high debt; so far this year, over 100 data center projects in the U.S. have encountered obstacles or delays, and IPOs for AI startups have frequently been postponed or even canceled.

Daniel Ek (Program Narration / Live Sound from Stockholm Press Conference): "We have an extremely excellent education system that has cultivated a large number of top talents across various disciplines and industries. The problem is not potential; what we need is to accelerate speed and raise our ambitions."

Emily Chang: With cracks appearing everywhere in the market, are we really on the edge of an AI bubble burst, and will Nvidia become the last one to pick up the pieces?

Jensen Huang: No, because the underlying paradigm shift is too fundamental; the foundation of the computing world can never revert to the past. In the past, computers could only wait for instructions written line by line by humans; in the future, computers will be able to learn autonomously from complex environments to solve problems that even human engineers cannot program. Computing power has become a fundamental universal infrastructure; regardless of how the secondary market fluctuates in the short term, as long as young emerging industries are experiencing rapid growth, they will inevitably accompany this growing pain.

Emily Chang: But look at Nvidia, constantly releasing its own full-stack new products while aggressively acquiring companies, even competing directly with its own customers in many places. Why do you have to expand so much?

Jensen Huang: In fact, what we are doing is surprisingly focused and minimal. We are simply taking the same foundational universal computing architecture to the extreme and generalizing it, allowing all closed-source models, open-source models, life science models, large language models, and diffusion models to run. The real engineering miracle lies in "balancing versatility and excellence": how to make a car that has the fastest F1 racing speed while also being extremely affordable and user-friendly like a top family sedan? Because our architecture is interchangeable and universal, we have topped all performance rankings while keeping the overall cost of computing power to a minimum.

Emily Chang: Another sharp criticism: Nvidia has recently committed to investing about 500 billion dollars in the global AI industry, and the number is still snowballing. Critics bluntly call this "circular financing": you first take money to invest in startups, allowing them to use your money to buy your chips and create false demand. If AI is truly a gold mine, why do you have to subsidize it yourself?

Jensen Huang: Because this technology inherently has a very high capital expenditure threshold! The era when startups could take off with 10 million dollars is over; this generation of large model companies often needs 10 billion dollars to buy computing power to exchange for intelligence. Over the past five years, we have invested nearly 100 billion dollars, and this 100 billion dollars has directly attracted at least five times more external institutional capital to pour into the ecosystem. More importantly, we strictly adhere to discipline: even though we are often the earliest cornerstone investors, we never take the lead in any project or become the largest shareholder; we strictly control our shareholding ratio in all investment cases to below 20%.

Emily Chang: But from software CUDA to hardware GPU, almost all top AI labs globally are tied to Nvidia. When will this "entire industry relying on one company" single point dependence become a systemic financial and industrial crisis?

Jensen Huang: We are probably the only AI company in the world that collaborates with all AI companies globally, but they are not passively dependent on us; they actively choose us every day. I do not take today's position for granted; we started from scratch, and every day we have to prove that we deserve this place. As for the phrase "the U.S. must win the AI race," I have never understood it as relying on one or two companies to fight alone, but rather that a whole ecosystem of companies in the U.S. must win together; if we spend all day intimidating each other and creating anxiety, then the U.S. will truly lose the race.

Berlin Finale and Successor Vacancy: The Anxiety of Being Fired at Any Moment is the Norm

Emily Chang (Program Narration): The last stop of the European tour is set in Berlin. Despite the leveraged chip sector setting the longest consecutive decline since 2008 and the market continuously questioning the prospects of AI trading, Nvidia's event at the local electronics mall Saturn still drew long lines outside, igniting the enthusiasm of local developers.

Jensen Huang (Program Narration / Live Audio from Berlin Saturn Event): "Hello, Berlin! How do you pronounce Saturn in German? 'Satoorn'! In Germany, every word must be pronounced with extra seriousness."

Emily Chang: The market is falling, and even ordinary people who have learned AI are watching their jobs disappear. How do you respond to those workers who have 'obediently learned AI but still couldn't keep their jobs'?

Jensen Huang: Don't just talk theory; look at reality first! Unlike previous pure software revolutions, AI genuinely requires heavy industry and physical construction. It is creating a massive demand for construction workers, electricians, and plumbers. In just the past six months, $400 billion to $600 billion has flowed into the AI startup ecosystem. Just think about how many new jobs this huge amount of money has created! Of course, new tools will force everyone’s job roles to change; resisting change won't make it disappear. But it has democratized the superpowers that were once only mastered by top tech giants to every ordinary person on Earth. If even I, as a builder, cannot see that exciting optimistic future, what is the point of creating it?

Emily Chang (Program Narration): The grand finale of the entire European whirlwind tour is Nvidia's flagship conference GTC Berlin. Jensen Huang continues to promote enthusiastically on stage, reiterating investment and cooperation in Europe, releasing new AI safety and data center products, and interacting with an AI-trained robotic dog on stage; during this time, there were protesters who interrupted the proceedings, protesting media reports that Nvidia chips were found in Russian drones.

Jensen Huang (Program Narration / Live Audio from GTC Berlin Conference): "Hello, Berlin! (Interacting with the AI robotic dog) What were we just talking about? We were talking about Europe! Focus, come over here."

Emily Chang: You once said that the probability of AI destroying the world before 2030 is 0%. What about extending that to 2040 or even further? Where does your confidence come from? What if it turns out that your optimism was completely misguided?

Jensen Huang: I firmly believe in human initiative, and the historical data is there: today's world is much safer than it was 50 years ago, 100 years ago, or 250 years ago; it's just that bad news sells better than good news. Even if one day it turns out I was wrong, I can say with a clear conscience that I did everything within my ability: not only staying optimistic but also using engineering technology to solidify the industry's defenses.

Emily Chang (Program Narration): The week of European whirlwind ends, and the optimistic narrative surrounding Nvidia, the U.S. stock market, and even the global financial system seems to rest heavily on the shoulders of this founder alone. However, with scandals and investigations brewing, a more realistic hidden danger has emerged: for thirty-three years, the company has lacked a clear and defined official successor, making the entire industry’s lifeline incredibly fragile, tied to one person.

Emily Chang: Rumor has it that your management style is extremely unconventional: so flat that a large number of executives report directly to you, and you even try not to hold traditional large meetings. At the same time, your son Spencer, daughter Madison, and even your son-in-law (in the robotics department) are all currently employed at Nvidia. There are rumors that your daughter is at the top of your successor list. Is this true?

Jensen Huang: First of all, I would never "hope or even push this hard job onto my daughter"! Whether it's Spencer or Madison, they can only earn any position through their own efforts. A truly large enterprise requires extraordinary sacrifices: ordinary people only need to take care of their jobs and small families, while as CEO, I must bear the livelihood responsibilities of countless families and the entire industry. This job should not be easy, nor should it make you feel secure. Now my family and those around me have witnessed the immense pressure this position entails; they must weigh whether they truly want the cost of such a life.

Jensen Huang: I sincerely hope that Nvidia's next CEO is already within the company. Even twenty years from now, as long as I am still healthy and can prove that I am still creating value every day, I will continue. But also remember: just as I could be fired at any time, the next CEO must also be rigorously hired based on real ability. I particularly enjoy this state: within the company, no one can take their seat for granted, always maintaining a sense of crisis, always working diligently to earn back today’s position. This is the healthiest state for a company.