How Nvidia's Jensen Huang became Al's global salesman

Chipmaker’s chief is urging countries to build their own Al ecosystems — but using its tech.

- Michael Acton, Tim Bradshaw and Chloe Cornish

After joining the state banquet at Windsor Castle with US President Donald Trump and Britain’s King Charles on Sept 17, Mr Jensen Huang threw an after-party the following day in central London.

Before an audience of hundreds of tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, the Nvidia chief executive was joined on stage by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “Thank you so much, Jensen, for your confidence in what we are doing,” Mr Starmer gushed.

Then, channelling Oprah Winfrey’s famous TV show giveaways, Mr Huang started distributing prizes into the audience. Pledging £2 billion (S$3.5 billion) for UK-based artificial intelligence (Al) startups, he anointed eight companies one by one, telling each in turn: “I’m going to invest in your next round.”

Many of the British people in the audience were left bemused. “The whole event was totally unhinged,” says one attendee. Nonetheless, Mr Huang’s showmanship was the vital ingredient in a new tech agreement with the US, which Mr Starmer claimed would turn Britain into an “AI superpower”.

Mr Huang has pushed the idea of what he calls “sovereign” Al, where countries develop their own AI system, from computing infrastructure to data regulations. In the case of the UK, the government's efforts to bolster its national AI capabilities are now reliant on both chips and cash from the world’s most valuable company.

For instance, Nvidia is planning to invest £500 million into London-based Nscale, a deal that includes selling hundreds of thousands of its chips to the “neocloud” startup that was founded only in 2024 and which — largely thanks to Nvidia's patronage — is already valued at US$3 billion (S$3.9 billion).

It is a model Mr Huang is replicating from Europe and the Middle East to Japan and Malaysia, striking strategic partnerships with local companies to meet politicians’ desperation to ride the Al wave.

STAR POWER