GPU rental prices surge with demand, Jensen Huang: AI requires trillions of dollars in infrastructure support

NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang pointed out at the World Economic Forum in Davos that artificial intelligence is triggering a "platform-level transformation," and humanity is about to witness the largest infrastructure investment in history, totaling trillions of dollars.

On January 21, during a dialogue with BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink, Huang systematically explained the five-layer architecture of the AI industry, from the foundational energy, chips, and computing infrastructure, to cloud computing, AI platforms, and finally to industry applications at the top layer. He emphasized that each layer is crucial to supporting this transformation, and NVIDIA's role has transcended that of a chip supplier, becoming a core force in driving global AI infrastructure development.

Huang also summarized three major annual breakthroughs in the field of AI models, particularly mentioning the release of the first open-source inference model, DeepSeek, stating that it is "significant for most industries and enterprises." This statement reflects that the prosperity of the open-source ecosystem is accelerating the popularization and application of AI technology.

On the market side, the spot prices of GPU leasing services continue to rise, further confirming the strong global demand for AI computing power and the urgency of infrastructure development.

AI Industry Architecture: A Five-Layer System from Energy to Application

Huang vividly compared the AI industry architecture to a "five-layer cake": the bottom layer is energy infrastructure, followed by chips and computing infrastructure, cloud computing, AI platforms, and the top layer consists of specific industry applications such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. He emphasized that this new computing platform "requires solid support from every layer of infrastructure."

Huang further pointed out that the infrastructure development supporting this system will be one of the largest investment projects in human history, with total investments expected to reach trillions of dollars. He clearly stated that despite the unprecedented scale, this investment is "completely reasonable," and its necessity is rooted in the core position of artificial intelligence as a driver of structural transformation in the global economy.

Model Breakthroughs: Open-Source Ecosystem Catalyzing Industry Transformation

Huang summarized three major breakthroughs in the field of AI models over the past year at the forum. First, the emergence of Agentic AI marks significant progress: such models can autonomously reason, plan, and answer questions within predefined domains, and the early prevalent "hallucination" problem has been significantly improved, allowing various industries to systematically explore AI applications in professional scenarios again.

Secondly, he particularly emphasized the groundbreaking development of open-source inference models. Huang pointed out that the release of the first open-source inference model, DeepSeek, is milestone significance for most industries and enterprises. Since its launch, the open-source inference model ecosystem has rapidly enriched, providing flexible foundational tools for numerous companies, research institutions, and educators, greatly promoting the popularization and innovative application of AI technology.

Employment Prospects: From Task Replacement to Value Creation

Huang holds an optimistic view on the impact of AI on the job market. He believes that AI will not simply replace human jobs but will automate repetitive "tasks," allowing humans to be liberated to focus on more creative and strategic "goals." He further explained using radiologists as an example: when AI takes over the preliminary screening of medical imaging, doctors can devote more energy to complex diagnostic decisions and patient communication. This shift not only does not reduce jobs but, due to the optimization of medical processes and efficiency improvements, has led to an increased demand for advanced professional skills.

Jensen Huang predicts that the development of AI will create a large number of jobs related to the deployment of new technologies, system maintenance, and process optimization, while also promoting an upgrade of the employment structure towards higher value fields by enhancing overall productivity across industries.

Emerging Market Opportunities: Autonomous AI Infrastructure is Key

Jensen Huang emphasized that every country should establish its own autonomous artificial intelligence infrastructure and pointed out that the current threshold for using artificial intelligence technology is rapidly decreasing. He called for countries to widely promote AI skills, viewing mastery of AI tools as a fundamental competency akin to management skills.

He believes that artificial intelligence has the potential to bridge the technological gap and provide significant opportunities for leapfrog development for emerging countries. This viewpoint further indicates that investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure is not only a strategic focus for the global future but will also become a key pathway for emerging markets to deeply engage in global technological competition and achieve economic upgrades