Jensen Huang says AI sovereignty rests on data control, even with American chips

AI sovereignty depends on countries controlling their own data and experience, even when their systems run on American chips. Cooperation with foreign technology providers can support that sovereignty if countries retain the ability to shape their own future.

In a Bloomberg Originals interview on November 12, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang said AI built on American chips could still be sovereign. He described control over data as the foundation of sovereignty in AI.

Huang said personal experience, corporate knowledge, national culture and values, and the accumulated knowledge of a country's people belong to those who generate them. The cycle of producing more data, experience and intelligence also belongs to them, he said. He argued that determining one's own future can involve collaboration, partnerships and support from others, including adapting and fine-tuning open models.

Huang said Nvidia had invested $8 billion in European startups over the previous year and that he would announce another $2 billion in investment the following week. He also said AI agents were emerging across almost every industry, describing their arrival as the beginning of AI becoming useful.

Asked whether dependence on Nvidia could become a systemic risk, Huang emphasized customer choice. He claimed Nvidia was probably the only AI company working with every AI company in the world and said customers chose its technology.

Huang said AI safety remained within human control. Asked whether he believed there was no chance of AI ending humanity, he rejected that characterization of his position. He said advancing AI capabilities and improving safety were part of the same effort.

Huang also defended AI companies' participation in developing rules for the technology. He said companies should apply high standards of responsibility and accountability before expecting governments or third parties to regulate them. Even with government regulation, he argued, an ecosystem of companies capable of conducting audits would be necessary, requiring support for startups and participation from countries and businesses.