Jensen Huang's latest pitch to investors: Nvidia's AI compute is its own asset class

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Samuel O’Brient

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Nvidia's Jensen Huang sees company's AI compute as a burgeoning asset class for investors to consider.

The Nvidia CEO took to X on Monday to tout the partnership between the chip titan and some of Wall Street's biggest firms to help finance a $500 billion build out of AI infrastructure. The partners include including Apollo, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, KKR, Blackstone, and Brookfield.

"AI has reached an inflection point," Huang wrote. "It is moving from research into production. AI is creating real value, and the infrastructure behind it is becoming one of the world's most productive assets. In AI, compute is revenue."

Compute refers to the physical infrastructure needed to train and run AI models, but Huang wrote that it includes more than the company's coveted GPUs. The asset class he envisions is the entire infrastructure stack, from the racks to the factories to the networks and the software that tie it all together.

As investors have rushed to pour money into the companies powering the AI boom, compute has emerged as its own commodity, with some tech firms considering including it in compensation packages. Investors recently cheered a move by Meta to sell its excess compute to other users.

Huang's thesis centers on presenting Nvidia's compute as a financeable, revenue-producing asset that can hold its value over the course of its life.

"These are the characteristics of an investable infrastructure asset," he said. "It produces revenue, serves a broad market, improves in performance over time and can be redeployed."

The new financing partnerships are addressing a problem that Huang sees in the AI market. He added that while demand for AI infrastructure remains highly robust, access to capital is far from even, making it difficult for many tech companies to scale their operations due to a lack of affordable financing for AI deployment.

"With these partnerships, NVIDIA and the world's leading financial institutions are creating a new way to finance the infrastructure that will power this industrial revolution," Huang said. "We will make AI factories more accessible to the companies, industries and nations building the future."

The deal-making frenzy to finance all of this in the last few years has made headlines, while also raising questions about the shaky nature of circular financing, as hardware firms like Nvidia invest in companies that will turn around and buy things like GPUs from them. Huang said that the partnership with big Wall Street firms is meant to address those concerns.

"The demand is real: it comes from frontier AI labs, AI-native startups, enterprises, cloud providers and countries building AI services," he wrote. NVIDIA provides the platform; the investors make independent financing decisions."

The CEO also addressed the question of what the return on these investments in financing AI compute will be. He answered that the return is "the usefulness of AI," highlighting the potential he sees for the technology to continue transforming the economy.

Nvidia's new partnership with Wall Street comes as investors have increasingly been questioning the timeline for tech companies to monetize their AI investments. In Huang's view, they should be focused on the big picture of what AI can become if the buildout continues.

"Companies are using AI to write software, discover drugs, design products, serve customers, automate operations and build new services," he said. "AI factories make this possible. More compute creates better AI; better AI creates more usage; more usage creates more revenue; and more revenue drives more compute."

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Samuel O'Brient

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Samuel O'Brient is an experienced financial markets and business journalist who has written extensively on a wide range of topics involving economics, technology and public policy. At Business Insider, he covers important macro and micro economic stories, including takes from leading economists and hedge fund managers, breaking IPOs,  corporate bankruptcies, meme stocks and short-selling. He also writes on other markets such as crypto, oil and real estate.He has interviewed many of the market’s most influential voices, ranging from top economists such as Mark Zandi and Richard Thalerto prominent investors including Danny Moses, Andrew Left, Anthony Scaramucci, Louis Navellier and Grant Cardone.Programs such as LiveNOW from Fox , Taking Stock and Ticker News have had Samuel on to discuss stock market and economic developments. His reporting has been cited by The New York Times DealBook, Bloomberg Radio, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Gizmodo and TheFutureParty.Samuel began at InvestorPlace, covering investing, retail trading and macro economic trends. Prior to joining Business Insider,  he served as a technology markets reporter at TheStreet. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Trinity College Dublin.Samuel's work has appeared in publications such as TipRanks, EV and Observer. When he isn't chasing down stories, he can often be found browsing book and record shops. To reach Samuel, email him at [email protected] or connect with him on LinkedIn. He is also on Signal as Samuel Clemens. Popular Articles: A Nobel economist has a warning for meme stock tradersThe business school dropout who kicked off the Beyond Meat rally wants you to know he's not Roaring Kitty 2.0A top economist who thinks we're on the brink of a recession says he's eyeing these 3 warning signsTrump's 401(k) executive order marks big changes for retirement savings — and possibly puts your money at riskWhy hedge fund icon Ray Dalio says you shouldn't invest in real estate in this economyAI bullishness is soaring, but pros see a major opportunity brewing in an overlooked corner of the market