What I learned following Jensen Huang around Europe

Nvidia The boss Jensen Huang did a tour in Europe this week, bringing excitement and intrigue wherever he visited.

His message was clear – NVIDIA is the company that can help Europe build its artificial intelligence infrastructure so that the region can take control of its own destiny with transformative technology.

I went to London and Paris this week after Huang by meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron, journalists, fans, analysts and I gave a speech during the NVIDIA GTC event in the capital of France.

Here is what I saw and the key things I learned.

Huang is really the current Rockstar of the technological world.

At the London Tech Week, the lines were long and the auditorium was wrapped to hear it speaks.

The GTC event in Paris was also full. It was like going to a music concert or a sporting event. There were GTC Paris t-shirts at the back of each chair and even a freight store.

The aura of Huang really struck me when, after a session of questions and answers with him and a room full of participants, most people aligned themselves to take photos or selfies with him.

Macron and Starmer both wanted to be seen on stage with him.

One of the most important partnerships Announced this week is between the French startups Mistral and Nvidia to build a so-called AI cloud using the latter’s GPUs.

Huang spoke a lot during the week of “Sovereign IA” – the concept of building data centers inside the borders of a country which serves its population rather than relying on servers abroad. Among European decision -makers and companies, this was an important subject.

Huang has also praised the United Kingdom, France and Europe more broadly with regard to their potential in the AI ​​industry.

Thursday, Huang decided to visit the Nvidia stand and I managed to catch it to get a few words on CNBC “Squawk Box Europe. “”

A key subject of this discussion was China. Nvidia has not been able to sell its most advanced fleas to China due to American export controls and even less sophisticated semiconductors are blocked. In his last Quarterly resultsNvidia has undergone $ 4.5 billion on an invendary inventory.

I asked Huang how China progressed with AI fleas, in particular in reference to Huawei, the Chinese technology giant trying to make semiconductor products to compete with Nvidia.

Huang said Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia. But because there is a lot of energy in China, Huawei can simply use more chips to get results.

“If the United States does not want to participate, participate in China, Huawei covered China and Huawei has covered everyone,” said Huang.

In addition, Huang is concerned about the strategic importance of American companies that do not have access to China.

“It is even more important that the American technological battery is on which the developers of AI around the world rely,” said Huang.

The simple fact of reading between the lines – Huang sees a world where Chinese AI technology is advancing. Some countries may decide to build their AI infrastructure with Chinese rather than American companies. This could in turn give Chinese companies a chance to be in the AI ​​race.

Huang told me it would be “decade“Autonomous and robotics vehicles.

During his opening speech of the GTC Paris on Wednesday, he is also addressed to quantum computer science, saying that technology reaches “a inflection point. “”

Quantum computers are widely considered as able to solve complex problems that conventional computers cannot. This could include things such as the discovery of new drugs or new materials.