As Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg And Sam Altman Chase Nvidia AI Chips, Jensen Huang Says 'Just Call Me' — Here's How Allocation Really Works
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang discussed the company's chip allocation process on the All In Podcast, emphasizing simplicity: clients just need to place a purchase order. He addressed supply concerns, revealing he wrote off $5 billion in Hoppers and is open to additional requests. The demand for Nvidia's H100 AI chips is surging, with strong residual values. Huang noted the industry's significant investment in AI infrastructure, projected to be in the hundreds of billions annually. The chip shortage is exacerbated by U.S. sanctions on China, affecting major firms' inventories.
Nvidia Corp. NVDA CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company’s straightforward chip allocation process during Wednesday’s All In Podcast, dismissing concerns about favoritism among tech titans competing for scarce artificial intelligence processors.
What Happened: When asked how he manages allocation requests from high-profile clients like Tesla Inc.‘s TSLA Elon Musk, Meta Platforms Inc.‘s META Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI‘s Sam Altman, Huang offered a surprisingly simple answer: “Place a PO. That’s it.”
Huang said that the company now discloses its roadmap to partners a year in advance for better planning.
Huang addressed supply concerns by revealing he “wrote off $5 billion worth of Hoppers,” adding, “If anybody would like to have some extras, you got them. Just give me a call.”
The allocation process has become critical as demand for NVIDIA’s H100 AI chips intensifies. Current Hopper architecture GPUs maintain strong residual value, retaining 75-80% of their original value after one year and approximately 50% after three years.
Responding to Musk’s projection of deploying “50 million H100 equivalents” within five years, Huang described AI infrastructure as requiring “factories of AI” that continuously produce tokens. He estimates the industry is “a couple hundred billion dollars into a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout per year.”
Why It Matters: The chip shortage has intensified amid U.S. sanctions affecting Chinese customers. Chinese server maker H3C recently warned of depleted H20 chip inventory, with supply uncertainties extending beyond April.
Major Chinese firms, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA and Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY have increased H20 orders following DeepSeek‘s emergence in the AI market.
Previous reports indicate the competitive dynamics at play. Oracle Corp.’s ORCL Larry Ellison and Musk reportedly “begged” Huang for additional GPUs during a dinner at Nobu Palo Alto, with Ellison stating they told the CEO to “please take our money.”
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