Gates commended Huang for turning Nvidia into one of the world’s most valuable firms, particularly highlighting Nvidia’s innovative approach, in a February 2025 episode of Opening Bid with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi.
The billionaire stressed the importance of design over manufacturing, noting that despite Nvidia not manufacturing their own chips, their design expertise has kept it at the forefront in the competitive tech industry.
‘Doesn’t Even Make His Own Chips’
“And the fact that Jensen doesn’t even make his own chip, you know that everybody has TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (NYSE:TSM) available is all the more credit to him,” Gates said.
He said, “at the design level — the silicon, the buses, [and] the interconnects,” Nvidia excels.
However, Gates also acknowledged the fierce competition Huang is up against, saying, “I wouldn’t want to be Jensen, necessarily, because you know other people are working on the same things, but you know so far…he has stayed way ahead.”
While Nvidia is currently leading the AI chip race, Microsoft and other tech behemoths are also developing their own AI chips while also purchasing from Nvidia, making the future of the industry “pretty hard to predict,” said Bill Gates.
Gates On Huang’s Quantum Computing Timeline
However, Gates also acknowledged that Huang may ultimately be right that meaningful progress could take longer due to the technical challenges in both building quantum computers and developing software capable of solving problems beyond classical computers.
As for AI, Bill Gates acknowledged that the industry is experiencing an AI bubble, a view Jensen Huang has repeatedly pushed back against, but argued it is far from a “Tulip Mania” moment and instead more closely resembles the early growth phase of the internet.
In March, Microsoft joined hands with Nvidia to build an AI-powered nuclear energy future, combining Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities with Nvidia’s technologies. This collaboration underscores the intertwined future of these tech giants and the importance of AI in shaping the industry.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Alexandros Michailidis on Shutterstock
