While demand for Nvidia’s new AI chips surges, CEO Jensen Huang says the greater challenge is America’s shortage of trained AI professionals—a gap that could let China take the lead.
As Nvidia contends with overwhelming demand for its new Blackwell GPUs, CEO Jensen Huang is raising a deeper concern: the U.S. is not doing enough to develop its AI workforce, especially compared to China.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Huang described current demand for Nvidia chips as “insane,” but said the real limitation isn’t hardware—it’s human capital. “You need to have an infrastructure of AI factories,” he said, referring to data centers and skilled workers that can build and maintain artificial intelligence systems. “You need to have people who understand how to build the data, refine the data, engineer the data, and annotate the data.”
Nvidia is expanding chip production with new facilities in Texas and Arizona, aiming to meet a backlog that already includes over 3.6 million units ordered by major customers. But Huang emphasized that without more trained professionals, even the best hardware can’t deliver its full value.
U.S. export restrictions have fueled demand among domestic buyers, and Chinese firms like Huawei are accelerating their own AI chip development. That makes the AI talent gap not just a workforce issue, but a national competitiveness risk.Huang’s message is clear: America’s lead in AI isn’t guaranteed. Without ramping up training and education in data science, machine learning, and AI operations, the U.S. could find itself outpaced—not in chip production, but in the people needed to power the next generation of technology.
