By Belle Lin

WASHINGTON -- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said all American companies will eventually need or become artificial-intelligence factories -- or entities that produce both goods and AI -- and will create skilled U.S. jobs in the process.

"Just as we make physical cars today, or anything physical in the future, there'll be a digital version of it," Huang told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "So you need an AI factory to create the AI model that runs in the car."

An AI factory -- which can also be described as a sort of one-stop shop of chips, software, design and networking infrastructure designed for AI -- is a concept that Nvidia has promoted at past events as a facility that takes in data and churns out intelligence.

Nvidia benefits from the development of these AI factories since the chip giant is the "engine" behind the AI infrastructure, Huang said. Electricity goes into the factories and tokens come out, he said, referring to the tiny units of data that AI models spit out.

The Nvidia chief's comments came during the Hill and Valley Forum, a one-day gathering of Silicon Valley elites and policymakers co-founded by Jacob Helberg, President Trump's pick for undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.

Helberg is known for his aggressive stance on China, and has warned that companies must ready their supply chains for a possible escalation of hostilities between the U.S. and China.

Nvidia's advanced AI chips, which helped spark the AI boom, remain in Washington's crosshairs for their sale to China. The U.S. government earlier this month said that it would require export licenses for some chips made by Nvidia and rival AMD, causing the chip giant to warn it would take a $5.5 billion charge.

Huang declined Wednesday to answer specific questions on the government's chip export controls, saying that policymakers "need to recognize that we should be accelerating, supporting, and promoting the American AI industry around the world."

Huang is set to discuss Nvidia's business practices and compliance with U.S. export controls at a closed-door roundtable held by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said. The roundtable is part of a series of conversations lawmakers are having with experts on export controls.

Building on the idea that AI factories will become commonplace for American companies, Huang also said the American data-center building boom will create skilled jobs in areas including construction, steel working, and information technology and networking.

"Our country needs to acknowledge that trade craft is respectable work, and it's necessary to build a country," he said.

Nvidia this month announced that it would start manufacturing AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S. -- marking the first time that such devices will be made completely domestically, the company said.

"I'm delighted that the administration is really encouraging supporting the industry with on-shore manufacturing," Huang said on Wednesday. "If we don't get good at manufacturing, we're going to leave behind a giant industry."

--Amrith Ramkumar contributed to this article.

Write to Belle Lin at belle.lin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2025 18:44 ET (22:44 GMT)

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