Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has told Sky News the AI sector is a “long, long away” from a Big Short-style collapse.
Speaking outside Downing Street following a roundtable with government and other industry figures, the head of the world’s first $5tn company defended his sector from criticism by investor Michael Burry.
Mr Burry and his firm, Scion Capital, gained notoriety for “shorting” – betting against – the US housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crash.
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He was portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 film The Big Short, which also starred Steve Carell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling.
Earlier this week, filings revealed Mr Burry has now bet against Nvidia and on social media, he has suggested there is a bubble in the sector.
Some $500bn was wiped off technology stocks overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
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Speaking to Sky News, Mr Huang said: “I would say that we’re in the beginning of a very long build out of artificial intelligence.”
Defending his company and investment, Mr Huang said AI is the first technology that requires “infrastructure to be built” and that Nvidia has seen “great returns” from AI, and that is why it is expanding.
Mr Huang said better training of AI has led to much “better” and “useful” answers, and that means “the AIs have become profitable”.
“When something is profitable, the suppliers want to make more of it, and that’s the reason the infrastructure build out is accelerating,” he added.
Pushed on whether he was worried about a situation like the Big Short, Mr Huang said: “We are long, long away from that.”
The UK government is betting big on AI in the hopes that it can save money by using it and generate growth by building the infrastructure to back it up.
Asked if she was worried about the market, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told Sky News: “I have no doubts that AI is going to transfer all parts of our economy and our public services.”
Mr Burry and his firm, Scion Capital’s bets against Nvidia and other companies were revealed by regulatory filings earlier this week.
The investor also posted on social media for the first time in more than two years, warning of a bubble.
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Concerns have been raised about the market surrounding AI, and the growth many companies are experiencing.
Nvidia is the largest producer of the specialist computer chips that are used to train and use AI models.
