During a mainstage session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang positioned artificial intelligence as the foundation of what he described as “the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” and he argued that this era will drive job creation across the global economy. Speaking to a packed audience, Huang said the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence marks the beginning of the next major computing platform shift and signals a move for the workforce from a focus on tasks to a focus on purpose. He framed the current moment as a broad industrial transformation that reaches well beyond the tech sector.
In a conversation with BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink, Huang emphasized that artificial intelligence should not be viewed as a single technology but as an interconnected “five-layer cake”. He described this stack as spanning the energy systems that power data centers, the chips and core computing infrastructure, the cloud data centers themselves, the artificial intelligence models that run on top, and finally the application layer that reaches end users. By breaking the ecosystem into these layers, Huang highlighted how each part of the stack requires significant investment, engineering and operations.
Huang said that because every layer of artificial intelligence’s five-layer stack must be built and operated, the platform shift is creating jobs across the economy. He specifically pointed to opportunities in energy and construction, advanced manufacturing, cloud operations and application development, arguing that the buildout will involve both skilled trades and startups. In his view, this breadth of activity shows that the artificial intelligence boom is reshaping both physical and digital infrastructure, and he presented it as a long-term driver of economic growth and employment.
