Jensen Huang told investors Thursday that Nvidia’s revenue could grow 70% next year, and he’s betting on the company’s reach across the entire AI industry to get there.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference, the Nvidia CEO doubled down on guidance the company first gave last month. Analysts expect Nvidia to finish its current fiscal year at about $400 billion in revenue, which means 70% growth would land around $680 billion next year.
“I think we could grow 70% year over year. We’re confident about that,” Huang said.
Why Nvidia’s GPU Now Costs $8.5 Million
Huang argued that skeptics misunderstand what Nvidia actually sells. The company no longer ships the $399 gaming cards it built its name on.
“Most people think Nvidia builds a chip. I mean, you need airplanes to ship what we build,” he said.
The modern Nvidia GPU is a massive system: one unit with 2 million parts, all connected via NVLink, drawing 250,000 kilowatts and costing $8.5 million.
“One GPU now is not $399. It’s $8.5 million dollars. That’s one GPU, all connected with NVLink, 2 million parts, right? 250,000 kilowatts. That’s a GPU, and we ship thousands of them,” Huang said.
One product, a computer system combining 36 Grace CPUs with 72 Blackwell GPUs, is seeing 27% month-to-month sales growth.
Huang’s Claim: He Can See the Future
Huang’s confidence rests on a simple claim: Nvidia is everywhere in AI.
“Nvidia runs every model. Every single lab can use us,” he said, citing work with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, plus open-weight models. “We are a foundational platform of the AI ecosystem, foundational platform of the AI industry.”
The company tracks demand from the bottom up. Huang said Nvidia monitors every data center project and power grid on the planet.
“We’re tracking every single gigawatt of land, power, shell around the world. Literally everything on the planet,” he said. “Shell” refers to a data center building before it’s outfitted with computers.
That visibility comes from partners reporting back:
- Neoclouds
- OEMs
- Cloud providers
- AI-native companies
“We’re working with everybody, and so we kind of know where everything is,” Huang said.
The Circular Deals Question
That reach invited questions about Nvidia’s investment strategy. The company puts money into companies that then buy Nvidia hardware, a pattern that resembles the circular deals that helped bring down a previous generation of internet build-out suppliers like Lucent Technologies.
Huang had a blunt answer.
“Well, it’s not circular because we put a little bit of money in, and a lot of money comes back,” he said. “I look at the spreadsheet, we put in $1 and $100 comes back in. Is that circular? If that is, let’s do more of that.”
He said Nvidia only invests after checking that a company has real revenue-generating contracts. He claimed to have seen $100 billion worth of such deals.
“I’m not taking any risks. … I need a sure thing,” Huang said.
Competition From Every Direction
The bullish outlook comes as Nvidia faces pressure from multiple directions. The hyperscalers are building their own chips:
| Competitor | What they’re doing |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Building its own AI chips |
| Microsoft | Building its own AI chips |
| Building its own AI chips | |
| Anthropic | Building its own AI chips |
| OpenAI | Building its own AI chips |
| Cerebras | Newly public GPU competitor |
| Etched | Competitor |
Huang acknowledged the company still battles an old perception. Nvidia invented the GPU, and for years those chips went to consumers who wanted better PC gaming. That era is over.
Risks Ahead
Huang conceded one weakness in the current growth story: much of AI’s spending comes from AI-native companies raising vast sums and spending most of that cash on their own AI use.
As the AI industry matures, companies may become more efficient in how they use infrastructure and tokens. That could mean less growth in some areas.
Tech industry history offers another warning. All dominant platforms eventually face disruption.
For now, though, Huang sees another year of record growth. Nvidia has its finger in every part of the AI stack, from memory chip suppliers to data center projects to the companies buying its systems.
The company’s founder is not hedging.
“We’re tracking every single gigawatt of land, power, shell around the world,” Huang said.
He believes that gives Nvidia a view of the future no competitor can match. Whether that vision holds will depend on whether the circular deals he jokes about stay as profitable as the spreadsheet says.
Time will tell.
Source: techcrunch.com
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