Davos 2026: AI the biggest infrastructure push in history, says NVIDIA CEO

Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving what Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang described as “the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” unleashing a wave of investment, job creation and industrial transformation that rivals the rise of electricity and the internet.

AI is not a single technology but a full computing platform made up of what he called a “five-layer cake”: energy and power, chips and computing infrastructure, cloud data centers, AI models, and the application layer where economic value is ultimately created, Huang said, speaking on the main stage at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos Wednesday.

Job creation

Building and operating each of those layers, he argued, is generating demand for labor across the global economy.

“Every layer has to be built,” Huang said, pointing to rising demand for electricians, plumbers, construction workers, steelworkers, network technicians and data center operators alongside engineers and software developers. From power generation and semiconductor manufacturing to cloud operations, the AI boom is already reshaping labor markets.

The biggest economic payoff, Huang said, will come at the application layer, where AI is being embedded into healthcare, manufacturing and financial services. Venture capital flows underscore the speed of that shift. Huang said 2025 was one of the largest years on record for global VC funding, with more than $100 billion deployed worldwide, most of it into so-called “AI-native” companies. These startups, spanning robotics, healthcare and industrial technology, are building on models that are now “good enough to build on top of,” he said.

That investment is translating directly into jobs, even in sectors where AI is often assumed to be a threat. Huang rejected the idea that AI will eliminate work, arguing instead that it automates tasks while expanding human purpose.

In radiology, for example, AI now helps analyze scans, yet the number of radiologists continues to rise. “The purpose of a radiologist is to diagnose disease and help patients,” Huang said. Faster analysis allows doctors to see more patients and spend more time on care, increasing demand for specialists.

Operational impact

A similar dynamic is emerging in nursing. The United States faces a shortage of about five million nurses, partly because nearly half their time is spent on documentation. AI tools that automate charting and transcription are freeing nurses to focus on patient care, improving productivity and outcomes. “Hospitals do better, and they hire more nurses,” Huang said.

Huang framed AI as critical national infrastructure, urging governments to treat it like roads or electricity. He encouraged countries to develop their own AI systems rooted in local language and culture, warning against reliance on external platforms. AI’s accessibility, he added, is helping close technology gaps, particularly in developing economies.

That message was echoed in a World Economic Forum report released in Davos, which shows companies moving beyond pilot projects to deploy AI at scale across healthcare, energy, industry and infrastructure. Drawing on hundreds of case studies from more than 30 countries, the report found double-digit gains in productivity and revenue when AI is embedded into core operations.

Enterprise adoption is also accelerating. OpenAI and Anthropic told CNBC that corporate customers now account for roughly 40% and 80% of their businesses, respectively, highlighting how AI is becoming foundational to modern enterprises.

As BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink put it during the session, the debate is no longer whether AI is a bubble, but whether the world is investing enough. Huang agreed. “We have to build the infrastructure for all the layers above,” he said. “The opportunity is extraordinary — and everybody ought to get involved.”

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Nathaniel Alexander Abaño

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