Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang on 2 September called on every nation to develop domestic artificial intelligence capacity and determine which parts of the rapidly expanding technology chain it wants to own — warning governments that outsourcing all their intelligence to others carries serious strategic risk. Huang made the remarks during a fireside chat with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

AI as Essential National Infrastructure

Huang drew a direct parallel between AI infrastructure and foundational utilities, describing it as being as critical to modern economies as water, roads, electricity, and the internet. 'Every single country needs to build infrastructure so that you could support your own local economy,' he said. He added that such infrastructure becomes the 'digital intellectual capacity' to support researchers, students, industries, and startups.

This framing positions AI not merely as a commercial technology but as a sovereign resource — one that nations neglect at their economic and strategic peril. Notably, Huang's remarks come at a moment when governments worldwide are racing to define their AI policies amid intensifying US-China competition over chips and compute.

The Five-Layer AI Stack

Huang described AI as a 'five-layer cake', with each layer representing a distinct investment opportunity for nations. Energy forms the foundation. Chips constitute the second layer. The third is infrastructure — encompassing data centres, land, and power. AI models occupy the fourth layer. The fifth and most consequential layer, Huang argued, is data and applications.

'Every single region, every single country should decide which one of the layers they want to invest in,' he said. 'You don't have to win in every single one of them. You don't have to develop all of them.' This layered framing offers smaller economies a practical entry point — concentrating investment where they already hold comparative advantages rather than attempting to compete across the entire stack.

Build Your Own Intelligence — Don't Outsource It

Huang urged countries and companies to blend off-the-shelf commercial AI systems with technology tailored to their specific needs. 'You should use AI off-the-shelf wherever you can, but don't forget, you have to invest in building your own intelligence, every country, every company,' he said. 'You can't outsource all of your intelligence to somebody else.'

He also noted that AI's scope extends well beyond language. The technology, he said, can learn, understand, and predict across any field with identifiable structure — including biology, chemistry, and physics. That breadth means countries with existing sectoral strengths in, say, pharmaceuticals or materials science could leverage AI to deepen those advantages rather than starting from scratch.

US Leadership and Global Partnerships

While asserting that the United States would lead AI development across all five layers of the stack, Huang struck a collaborative note. 'We'd love to partner with everybody so that everybody could take advantage of this,' he said. Commerce Secretary Lutnick echoed the call for infrastructure investment, stating that governments must build data centres and 'harness the AI for themselves' to deliver benefits to their citizens.

Both Huang and Lutnick highlighted AI's democratising effect on education, arguing that people who previously lacked access to top-tier learning could now benefit from digitally produced intelligence at scale.

India's AI Push in Context

India launched the IndiaAI Mission in 2024 to expand computing access, cultivate domestic AI capabilities, and support startups, datasets, and skills development. The government approved an outlay of more than ₹10,000 crore for the programme, which includes plans to provide shared computing infrastructure to researchers and developers. Huang's remarks align closely with the strategic logic underpinning that initiative — and may add fresh momentum to calls for India to deepen its investment in the chips and data layers of the AI stack.

As governments from New Delhi to Riyadh to Brussels race to define their AI sovereignty strategies, the central question Huang posed — which layers of the stack do you own? — looks set to shape national technology policy for years to come.