Jensen Huang told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal on Thursday that "the demand for the neo clouds is off the charts," and that their capabilities are "extraordinary." The catch, he said, is money in the middle of the stack. "What is missing in the middle is the working capital to fuel that growth… because there's just so much demand across so many sectors of AI, there's a scarcity of capital." In his view, "The demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital. That's going to get solved."
Huang called out power as a limiting factor for AI buildouts, especially in Europe where electricity is pricier. He argued that, within the region, scarce power should be funneled toward companies such as Nebius and Mistral if they are to scale.
His message to Europe's ecosystem was blunt: "You can bring investments into Europe, but you have to start with having your own infrastructure." If European neoclouds can plant that foundation, he said, the "AI economy" can be built on top, "the flywheel of the AI economy will start in Europe. It will terminate in Europe." He added, "Across all of Europe, you're going to need a lot more neoclouds."
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Nvidia has been active on the continent this month, as the chipmaker steps up its push into Europe's AI scene. The company's pledges total close to $10 billion for companies, universities, and research institutions. During a visit to London last week, Nvidia said it took positions in five U.K. startups with a combined value of more than $1 billion, and it is also backing several French startups. "We're trying to kickstart the AI economy in Europe," Huang told CNBC, pointing to Europe's technology base and industrial know how.
Neocloud names including CoreWeave and Nebius have been under pressure, reflecting jitters about the scale of AI infrastructure spending and the prospect that returns may arrive later than hoped. There is also unease around CoreWeave's reliance on debt to expand its data centers.
Ahead of Thursday's open, Nebius fell 3.6 percent, CoreWeave slipped 4 percent, and Iren and Applied Digital were each off by nearly 4 percent. The bottom line: Huang is tying two inputs - capital and electricity - to the pace of AI capacity growth in Europe. For investors, that means timelines and financing structures matter as much as demand, even as Nvidia places big chips on a Europe based AI flywheel.
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