Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang on 2 September urged India to accelerate its adoption of Artificial Intelligence, calling the country one of the world's foremost information technology powers and pressing its companies and start-ups to construct a homegrown AI economy. Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Huang said the pace of AI development left no room for hesitation.

India's AI Opportunity

'AI is moving fast, so every country has to move faster,' Huang told reporters at the event. He framed the rise of AI as the dawn of an entirely new technology platform — one that India, with its deep-rooted IT industry, is uniquely positioned to capitalise on. 'India is one of the world's leading IT industries, and this is the beginning of a new IT platform,' he said.

Huang expressed particular enthusiasm for the role of local entrepreneurs. 'I'm really anxious to see and very excited to see the local companies and the local startups starting in India, starting to take advantage of the technology, contributing to the technology, and then building the local AI economy with it,' he said.

Huang Recalls PM Modi's Early AI Vision

In a notable aside, Huang recalled an encounter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi roughly a decade ago, during which the Prime Minister was already discussing AI's potential. 'I had the benefit of seeing Modi a decade ago, talking about AI,' Huang said — a recollection that underscores how early India's political leadership engaged with the technology, even before it became a global priority.

On Regulation: Target Actual Harm, Not Hypothetical Risk

Asked about the governance framework for AI, Huang cautioned policymakers against over-regulating a technology still in its formative stages. 'The advice that I would have is to regulate practical and actual harm and not regulate theoretical and hypothetical harm,' he said. He drew a parallel with the evolution of automobile safety, arguing that advancing the technology itself — rather than constraining it prematurely — was the surest path to safety. 'Just as cars today are much safer because the technology is better than the cars were 100 years ago, we need to make the technology as advanced as possible,' Huang said.

He acknowledged that AI systems had improved markedly over the past two years, hallucinating less and becoming more grounded in factual information. 'We need to keep moving in that direction,' he added.

Global AI Stack and US Policy

Huang described AI as productive economic infrastructure, noting that while the United States intended to lead by building the complete technology stack, other nations should be free to select the components suited to their own AI economies. He said the US administration was supportive of technology development globally and wanted G20 countries to adopt AI to drive their own growth. On semiconductor tariffs, Huang said he had no discussions on the subject at the ministerial.

Nvidia's Role in the AI Era

Founded in 1993, Nvidia initially built its reputation on graphics processing units for gaming before its chips became the backbone of AI training infrastructure worldwide. Huang, a co-founder, has led the company since its inception. The firm's rapid ascent has positioned him as one of the most influential voices in global debates on AI infrastructure, safety, and regulation. Every technology company, he stressed, bears individual responsibility for safe development. 'As we race quickly to make the technology better and more useful and safer, we also build it safely,' he said.

With India at an inflection point in its digital economy, Huang's remarks at the G20 ministerial add fresh weight to calls for a structured national AI strategy.