Nvidia Fever Gripped Europe This Week: Insights Gained from Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., left, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s president at the 2025 VivaTech conference in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has been on a tour of Europe this week, bringing excitement and intrigue to everywhere he visited. His message was clear — Nvidia is the company that can help Europe build its artificial intelligence infrastructure so the region can take control of its own destiny with the transformative technology.
I’ve been in London and Paris this week following Huang around as he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, journalists, fans, analysts and gave a keynote at Nvidia’s GTC event in the capital of France. Here’s what I saw and the key things I learned.
The draw of Huang is huge
Huang is truly the current rockstar of the tech world. At London Tech Week, the lines were long and the auditorium packed to hear him speak. The GTC event in Paris was also full. It was reminiscent of attending a music concert or sporting event. There were GTC Paris T-shirts on the back of every chair and even a merchandise store.
Nvidia GTC in Paris on 11 June 2025 Arjun Kharpal
The aura of Huang really struck me when, after a question-and-answer session with him and a room full of attendees, most people lined up to take pictures or selfies with him. Macron and Starmer both wanted to be seen on stage with him.
Nvidia positions itself as Europe’s AI hope
Nvidia’s key product is its graphics processing units (GPU) that are used to train and execute AI applications. But Huang has positioned Nvidia as more than a chip company. During the week, he described Nvidia as an infrastructure firm. He also suggested that AI should be considered as essential as electricity.
His pitch to all countries was that Nvidia could be the partner to help build that infrastructure. “We believe that in order to compete, in order to build a meaningful ecosystem, Europe needs to come together and build capacity that is joint,” Huang said during a speech at the Viva Tech conference in Paris on Wednesday.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
One of the most significant partnerships announced this week is between French startup Mistral and Nvidia to build a so-called AI cloud using the latter’s GPUs. Huang spoke extensively about “sovereign AI” — the concept of building data centers within a country’s borders to service its population rather than relying on overseas servers. This has been a vital topic among European policymakers and companies.
Huang also praised the U.K., France, and Europe more broadly for their potential in the AI industry.
China still behind but catching up
On Thursday, Huang toured Nvidia’s booth and I managed to catch him to get a few words on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” A key topic of that discussion was China. Nvidia has not been able to sell its most advanced chips to China due to U.S. export controls, and even less sophisticated semiconductors are facing restrictions. In its last quarterly results, Nvidia reported a $4.5 billion hit on unsold inventory.
I asked Huang about how China was progressing with AI chips, particularly referencing Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that is striving to rival Nvidia in semiconductor production. Huang mentioned that Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia. However, due to China’s extensive resources, Huawei can utilize more chips to achieve results. “If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered, and Huawei has got everybody else covered,” Huang noted.
Huang also expressed concerns regarding the strategic importance of American companies gaining access to China. “It’s even more important that the American technology stack is what AI developers around the world build on,” Huang stated. His comments suggest he sees a scenario where Chinese AI technology advances, potentially leading some countries to develop their AI infrastructure with Chinese companies instead of American ones.
Quantum, robotics and driverless is the future
Huang often uses public appearances to discuss the future. I asked him about emerging areas in which he sees potential, such as robotics and driverless cars, technologies that Nvidia’s products can empower. Huang stated this will be the “decade of” autonomous vehicles and robotics.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang delivers a speech on stage talking about robotics. Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
During his keynote at GTC Paris on Wednesday, he also addressed quantum computing, stating that the technology is reaching “an inflection point.” Quantum computers are believed to be capable of solving complex problems that traditional computers cannot, including drug discovery and material science.
