Huang urges AI embrace amid energy and jobs fears

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argues that society must build new social norms as AI accelerates economic growth and scientific breakthroughs, while insisting the United States prioritize national security and fix an energy shortfall. In an interview Tuesday, he push

By the time Jensen Huang sat down to talk about AI, the debate around it had already spilled beyond tech labs and into politics—into fears about layoffs, into objections to data-center plans, and into questions about who should control the industry.

Huang. the 63-year-old CEO of Nvidia and a key figure behind the chips that power today’s AI boom. said society needs to change as AI spreads. In an Associated Press interview Tuesday. he argued for a broader embrace of the technology. saying “We need to create new social norms. ” and adding. “I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it.”.

The pitch comes with a double edge. Huang is optimistic about AI’s ability to rapidly transform society—driving faster economic growth and unlocking more scientific breakthroughs. But he also acknowledged that public concern has grown as critics warn about harm ranging from job losses to threats to humanity itself. and as the speed of adoption fuels worries that workers won’t have a safety net.

Those concerns have become a political flashpoint, even as a race with China accelerates. Huang believes the contest can be won by the United States only if it remains open to competing globally in AI.

His argument also lands inside a deeper controversy: his relationship with President Donald Trump. Democrats have criticized Huang’s proximity to Trump. even as Huang emphasized that the computing power created by AI is vital to adding factory jobs—an outcome the administration has repeatedly promised for decades without much enduring success.

Huang framed his personal stake in a way that made the confrontation feel lived-in rather than theoretical. He said his own life revolves mainly around work and his family, and described himself as “boring” because of it. He also shared details that reached beyond policy: his favorite movie is “Kingdom of Heaven. ” the 2005 epic about the 12th century Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. He said he has watched “Project Hail Mary” three or four times and “I think we might watch it again this weekend.”.

In the same interview. Huang pointed to specific ways AI is already closing what he called a technological divide in America. He said the ability of AI to design a website. analyze complex documents. guide advanced research. or even plan a kitchen remodeling has helped Americans do advanced work on computers without needing to know how to program or write software.

The energy question—less visible to voters than job headlines—was one of Huang’s sharpest warnings. He argued the United States is vulnerable because its energy supply is deficient. The data centers doing the computations used for AI create huge demand for electricity. and that demand could strain the power grid.

Some data centers, Huang said, will be built with their own electricity sources. But the United States, he warned, starts at a disadvantage. “We just suffocated energy production for too long,” he said. Without more energy. he argued. it can be harder to play to American strengths in AI infrastructure. models. and computer-chip development.

He complimented Trump’s approach to generating more energy in the U.S. emphasizing that the president has aggressively supported the use of oil. coal. and natural gas. while “scorn[ing]” solar and wind power. Huang was not commenting on Trump’s opposition to climate-friendlier energy sources. but he linked the energy gap to fears households have about AI pushing up utility bills.

Huang delivered the remarks Tuesday in Sherman, Texas, at an expansion of the Coherent factory to develop a laser for transmitting data among chips—work he said could cut power use by AI systems by up to 50%.

The conversation also carried a policy edge: Huang said national security needs to be a priority for AI. The Trump administration, he noted, has shifted from a lighter approach to regulating AI to taking a heavier hand. Export controls were placed on Anthropic’s latest models. and on Friday the company shuttered all public access to those models over security concerns. Trump, a Republican, also signed an order to have new AI models voluntarily screened by the government before their release.

Huang said the government is properly focused on national security issues, but stressed that it must provide clear guidance. “National security should always be the top concern of all technologies,” he said. “But having said that. you know. you have to be very specific about the risk that you’re concerned about. before setting up policies for export controls.”.

He also drew on his history with export controls during the Biden administration. when Nvidia pushed back against restrictions meant to limit its ability to sell chips to China. Huang rejected the premise behind the proposed ban. warning that export controls might limit America’s ability to develop the world’s AI ecosystem because China would respond with its own advanced chips.

At the center of another dispute is the question of who benefits from the AI windfall. Nvidia’s market capitalization is roughly $5 trillion. and the company has soared in valuation to become the world’s most valuable company. AI modeling companies OpenAI and Anthropic are potentially set to also clear the $1 trillion mark once their stocks are publicly traded.

That explosive concentration of wealth has revived worries about economic inequality. Trump has tried to defuse those concerns by musing about the U.S. government owning some shares in AI firms, so windfalls would be more broadly shared with the public. The idea has also been advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Huang was skeptical. “I’m not exactly sure what they’re trying to achieve,” he said regarding government ownership. He added, “I haven’t had a dialogue with them about that. But just remember that these are American companies. Their success benefits the stock price, of which many Americans are investors in. It generates taxes, which helps many Americans. It creates a lot of jobs.”.

He said AI companies could also lead to higher profits for energy, construction, and hardware technology firms, and concluded: “Americans have a stake in American companies already, naturally, in a whole lot of different ways.”

Even as Huang argues that AI use should expand, the political environment is making that message harder to land cleanly. The same industry that could create jobs and strengthen U.S. economic growth is also drawing objections tied to data centers. layoffs. and questions about whether the public is being protected as adoption accelerates.

His proximity to Trump adds another layer to that tension. Trump, not known for technological expertise, quickly developed a friendship with Huang. The president has called him “smart” and “amazing,” insisting that Huang accompany him on foreign trips. Most recently. Trump had Air Force One pick up the leather-jacketed CEO in Alaska while en route to his state visit to China.

Huang said their relationship started last year with an invitation to dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and private club in Florida. Huang was in the area to receive the Edison Achievement Award for his AI work. “He says drop by for dinner, and so I did,” Huang said. He went with his wife, Lori.

“He was incredibly engaging, incredibly charismatic, conversational, asked a lot of questions,” Huang recalled. “From the moment that I met him. the only thing that he’s ever talked to me about is creating more jobs. reindustrializing the United States. protecting national security. winning.” Huang added that Trump “calls me in the middle of the night and wants to talk about one of these topics.”.

The closeness has also brought criticism. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., objected to Huang not testifying before a Senate committee even as “he has time to attend a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago.”

Huang said he wants the U.S. president and other officials—regardless of party—to succeed. “We could differ with politics, but we should want him to succeed,” he said. “Because when President Trump succeeds, our country succeeds.”

Nvidia Jensen Huang artificial intelligence AI regulation national security export controls data centers energy demand factory jobs economic inequality Bernie Sanders Sam Altman Donald Trump Coherent factory Sherman Texas