NVIDIA CEO Says AI Spending Flywheel Is ‘Really, Really Flying’
Sep 18, 2026 1:00 PM
· YahooFinance
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NVIDIA Corp. CEO Jensen Huang said demand for artificial intelligence computing is accelerating as AI becomes more useful and companies race to build new infrastructure.
Speaking with CNBC's Jim Cramer at Dreamforce in San Francisco, Huang said companies have been building NVIDIA-powered "AI factories" rapidly over the past six months.
Huang estimated that a 1-gigawatt NVIDIA AI factory costs about $50 billion to $60 billion to build. However, he said the same infrastructure can generate about $50 billion in annual rental revenue.
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That implies a return on invested capital of roughly one year under current market conditions, according to Huang. He also said NVIDIA infrastructure can remain useful for more than five or six years.
Meanwhile, AI usage continues to climb. Huang said the rate of token generation has increased 25-fold in less than a year. Open models now account for nearly 70% of generated tokens, up from about 30%.
Huang also pushed back against concerns that AI safety efforts could derail industry growth.
During the interview, Jim Cramer jokingly asked Huang whether people should be preparing to "die in 2030" because of AI. "We're not going to die in 2030," Huang replied.
Huang said thousands of companies worldwide are working on AI safety, security and guardrails. He argued that the industry can build AI that is "incredibly useful," helpful and safe at the same time.
He said companies should test products thoroughly and avoid releasing systems before they are safe.
In fact, Huang expects testing to become a third major category of AI infrastructure alongside training and inference. He said large testing environments will require additional data centers, creating another source of compute demand.
Huang also pointed to rising rental prices as evidence of tight demand. He said NVIDIA Grace Blackwell systems can now rent for about $16 per GPU hour, compared with roughly $5 under some contracts signed a year ago.
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As older contracts expire, cloud providers are raising prices, boosting revenue forecasts and investing in more infrastructure, Huang said.
Huang said rising GPU rental prices are boosting revenue forecasts and returns on invested capital, prompting customers to buy more equipment and build more infrastructure — a cycle he described as a flywheel that is "really, really flying."
NVIDIA stock rose in Wednesday premarket trading as technology stocks gained alongside U.S. equity futures. Nasdaq futures rose 0.39%, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.16%.
Investors are also watching whether NVIDIA can break above nearby resistance after recent rebounds stalled.
NVIDIA is trading 2.6% below its 20-day simple moving average of $218.81. However, the stock is roughly in line with its 50-day SMA of $213.24.
The longer-term trend remains constructive. NVIDIA trades 7.7% above its 200-day SMA of $197.79. In addition, the 20-day SMA remains above the 50-day average, while the 50-day remains above the 200-day.
Momentum is neutral. NVIDIA's relative strength index stands at 45.60. That suggests neither buyers nor sellers have firm control.
Resistance sits near $214, close to the 50-day SMA. Meanwhile, $190 represents a key support area. The stock's 52-week range is $164.27 to $236.54.
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NVIDIA carries a Buy consensus rating with an average price forecast of $348.22.
Piper Sandler initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and a $300 price forecast on Sept. 10. Rosenblatt maintained a Buy rating and $390 forecast on Sept. 4. Needham also maintained a Buy rating and $300 forecast that day.
The Benzinga Edge scorecard shows NVIDIA scoring strongly on growth and quality.
Its Growth score stands at 98.12, while Quality is 97.38. Momentum is also relatively strong at 74.05. However, its Value score is much lower at 7.41, reflecting a more demanding valuation.
NVIDIA also carries significant weight in several exchange-traded funds. It accounts for 9.94% of the Xtrackers Net Zero Pathway Paris Aligned U.S. Equity ETF, 9.79% of the First Trust Innovation Leaders ETF and 9.73% of the Franklin Focused Dynamic Growth ETF.
Large inflows or outflows from these funds can therefore translate into additional buying or selling of NVIDIA shares.
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