Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI is in a ‘virtuous cycle.’ Here’s what he means

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1 month ago

October 31, 2025

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NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the Live Keynote Pregame during the Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in Washington, DC, on Oct. 28, 2025.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Friday that artificial intelligence had reached a “virtuous cycle,” tipping the industry for continuous growth.

Speaking at the APEC CEO Summit in South Korea, Huang said the vast improvements in AI models were leading to more investment in the technology, which was, in turn, improving the AI models even further.

“We have now achieved what is called the virtual cycle,” he said on stage at the event, wearing a suit rather than his usual 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.”

His comments come as Big Tech is spending billions to build out AI-related infrastructure and serve its end users.

This year was expected to be a big one for AI spend with Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft announcing plans to spend over $300 billion combined on AI technologies and datacenter buildouts. This looks set to continue into 2026 as the tech giants plan to boost spending again, per their respective earnings, reported this week.

Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities global head of technology research, described Nvidia as “the foundation of the AI Revolution” in comments to CNBC after Huang’s comments on stage.

He described the AI virtuous cycle as: “The more demand, the more building of AI building blocks. And demand creates more demand and capex.”

Nvidia's South Korea deals mark a 'watershed', says Wedbush's Dan Ives

Huang stressed that profitability was at the heart of the current boom in AI capital investment.

“When something becomes profitable, you want to manufacture more of it, 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,” he added.

A new era of computing

It is the beginning of a new era of computing, as, with AI, “every single layer of the computing stack is being fundamentally changed,” Huang said on stage.

We are at the beginning of a 10-year build-out of this new era, he added.

“AI runs on GPUs [graphics processing unit], whereas hand-coded software runs on CPUs [central processing unit]. This entire software stack, from the … 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,” he 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,” he added.

Nvidia, which became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market value earlier this week, announced a partnership with Korean semiconductor giant Samsung earlier on Friday. Samsung plans to buy and deploy a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia GPUs to improve its chip manufacturing for mobile devices and robots.

Huang painted a picture of the future in which AI is able to “work,” rather than just be used as a tool. Highlighting the rise of fully automated manufacturing factories, the CEO expects AI to reshape $100 trillion worth of industries around the world.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

Technology

iPhone 17 will drive record Apple shipments in 2025, IDC says

Published

54 mins ago

December 3, 2025

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iPhone 17 will drive record Apple shipments in 2025, IDC says

Apple’s latest iPhone models are shown on display at its Regent Street, London store on the launch day of the iPhone 17.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

Apple will hit a record level of iPhone shipments this year driven by its latest models and a resurgence in its key market of China, research firm IDC has forecast.

The company will ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, up just over 6% year-on-year, IDC forecast in a report on Tuesday. That’s more than the 236 million it sold in 2021, when the iPhone 13 was released.

Apple’s predicted surge is “thanks to the phenomenal success of its latest iPhone 17 series,” Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, said in a statement, adding that in China, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance.”

Shipments are a term used by analysts to refer to the number of devices sent by a vendor to its sales channels like e-commerce partners or stores. They do not directly equate to sales but indicate the demand expected by a company for their products.

When it launched in September, investors saw the iPhone 17 series as a key set of devices for Apple, which was facing increased competition in China and questions about its artificial intelligence strategy, as Android rivals were powering on.

Apple’s shipments are expected to jump 17% year-on-year in China in the fourth quarter, IDC said, leading the research firm to forecast 3% growth in the market this year versus a previous projection of a 1% decline.

In China, local players like Huawei have been taking away market share from Apple.

IDC’s report follows on from Counterpoint Research last week which forecast Apple to ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025 for the first time in 14 years.

Bloomberg reported last month that Apple could delay the release of the base model of its next device, the iPhone 18, until 2027, which would break its regular cycle of releasing all of its phones in fall each year. IDC said this could mean Apple’s shipments may drop by 4.2% next year.

Technology

Anthropic reportedly preparing for one of the largest IPOs ever in race with OpenAI: FT

Published

6 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Anthropic reportedly preparing for one of the largest IPOs ever in race with OpenAI: FT

Nurphoto | Getty Images

Anthropic, the AI startup behind the popular Claude chatbot, is in early talks to launch one of the largest initial public offerings as early as next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

For the potential IPO, Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has previously worked on high-profile tech IPOs such as Google, LinkedIn and Lyft, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, was also pursuing a private funding round that could value it above $300 billion, including a $15 billion combined commitment from Microsoft and Nvidia, per the report.

It added that Anthropic has also discussed a potential IPO with major investment banks, but that sources characterized the discussions as preliminary and informal.

If true, the news could position Anthropic in a race to market with rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is also reportedly laying the groundwork for a public offering. The potential listings would also test investors’ appetite for loss-making AI startups amid growing fears of a so-called AI bubble.

However, an Anthropic spokesperson told the FT: “It’s fairly standard practice for companies operating at our scale and revenue level to effectively operate as if they are publicly traded companies,” adding that no decisions have been made on timing or whether to go public.

CNBC was unable to reach Anthropic and Wilson Sonsini, which has advised Anthropic for a few years, for comment.

According to one of the FT’s sources, Anthropic has been working through internal preparations for a potential listing, though details were not provided.

The FT report follows several notable changes at the company of late, including the hiring of former Airbnb executive Krishna Rao, who played a key role in the firm’s 2020 IPO.

CNBC also reported last month that Anthropic was recently valued to the range of $350 billion after receiving investments of up to $5 billion from Microsoft and $10 billion from Nvidia.

In its race to overtake OpenAI in the AI space, the startup has also been expanding aggressively, recently announcing a $50 billion AI infrastructure build-out with data centers in Texas and New York, and tripling its international workforce.

According to the FT report, investors in the company are enthusiastic about Anthropic’s potential IPO, which could see it “seize the initiative” from OpenAI.

While OpenAI has been rumoured to be considering an IPO, its chief financial officer recently said the company is not pursuing a near-term listing, even as it closed a $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.