Nvidia CEO: AI has reached a ‘virtuous cycle’ and ushered in a new era of computing

Artificial intelligence, according to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, has entered a self-sustaining phase — a “virtuous cycle” that’s reshaping how the world builds and profits from technology. Speaking at the APEC CEO Summit in South Korea, Huang said the progress in AI models is now feeding on itself: better models attract more users, more usage brings in more profits, and those profits fund the infrastructure needed to build even better AI.

“We have now achieved what is called the virtual cycle,” Huang said on stage, dressed in a suit instead of his trademark black leather jacket. “The AIs get better. More people use it. More people use it, it makes more profit, creates more factories, which allows us to create even better AIs, which allows more people to use it. The virtual cycle of AI has been designed, and this is … the reason why you’re seeing the world’s capex going so fast.”

That spending is staggering. Big Tech’s largest players — Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft — have already committed more than $300 billion this year alone to AI technologies and datacenter buildouts, according to a report from CNBC. Their latest earnings reports suggest that number could climb even higher in 2026. Analysts say Nvidia sits at the center of that boom, powering nearly every AI model with its GPUs.

Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, described Nvidia as “the foundation of the AI Revolution” after Huang’s speech. “The more demand, the more building of AI building blocks. And demand creates more demand and capex,” Ives said, echoing Huang’s view of a feedback loop driving AI’s explosive growth.

Huang made it clear that this boom isn’t driven by hype but by profitability. “When something becomes profitable, you want to manufacture more of it,” he said. “Just like when you’re manufacturing chips and wafers and DRAM, if the manufacturing of those chips were profitable, you want to build more factories to create more chips.”

Artificial Intelligence: Ushering in a New Era of Computing

He framed the current moment as the beginning of a new computing era — one in which GPUs replace CPUs as the primary engines of innovation. “AI runs on GPUs [graphics processing unit], whereas hand-coded software runs on CPUs [central processing unit],” Huang explained. “This entire software stack, from the needs of energy, chips, the infrastructure, all of the software associated with the systems, the AI models and the applications on top — every single layer of computing has been fundamentally changed.”

For decades, computing has largely followed the same architecture. That’s over, Huang said. “Just think: the computer industry has been largely the same for 60 years, and now, with AI and accelerated computing, every single layer of the computing stack is being changed. All of the computers we’ve created in the past, a trillion dollars, maybe more, of computers needs to now be transitioned, shifted to the new computing platform.”

Earlier that day, Nvidia announced a partnership with Korean semiconductor giant Samsung, which plans to deploy a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia GPUs to improve chip manufacturing for mobile devices and robots. The deal highlights how deeply AI is embedding itself across industries — from hardware and energy to manufacturing and robotics.

Huang closed with a look at the road ahead, describing AI as entering a phase where it can “work,” not just assist. Fully automated factories, he suggested, are only the beginning. “We are at the beginning of a 10-year build-out of this new era,” he said. AI, he believes, will eventually reshape $100 trillion worth of industries worldwide.

For Huang, this isn’t just about faster chips or smarter models — it’s about the dawn of a new economic loop, one where intelligence itself becomes the world’s most valuable resource.