Eric Schmidt, Former Google CEO: "Nvidia is the Biggest Beneficiary of AI"

"Big Tech Plans More Investment in AI Data Centers"
"Not a Stock Recommendation... Gap Widens"
"Google Falling Behind Due to Remote Work" Remarks Deleted

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "Nvidia will be the biggest beneficiary of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom."

According to CNBC on the 15th (local time), Schmidt made this remark during a recent lecture at Stanford University, stating, "Big tech companies are planning to invest increasingly in Nvidia chip-based AI data centers."

Schmidt projected that building AI data centers could cost up to $300 billion (approximately 408 trillion won). He said, "I have been talking with big tech companies, and they say investments ranging from $20 billion to $50 billion, up to $100 billion, are needed for AI infrastructure."

He added that a significant portion of this spending will go to Nvidia, which manufactures AI semiconductors required for data centers, saying, "If the entire $300 billion is invested in Nvidia, you will know what to do in the stock market." However, Schmidt clarified, "This is not a stock recommendation." He also did not comment on whether he holds Nvidia shares.

Schmidt said that while Nvidia will not be the sole winner in the AI market, there are not many other clear options. He stated, "The gap between leading models and other models is widening. Six months ago, I was confident the gap was narrowing and invested a lot of money in small companies, but now it is hard to be sure." He explained that many open-source tools used by AI developers are based on Nvidia's CUDA programming language, making it difficult for competitors to catch up with Nvidia. He mentioned that AMD's software to convert Nvidia CUDA code for its own chips is not yet functional.

This is part of the content from Schmidt's recent lecture on AI to Stanford students. The video is currently deleted. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), after Schmidt's remarks that Google is falling behind in the AI race due to its remote work policy sparked controversy, he requested the video be removed. In the lecture, Schmidt said, "Google decided that work-life balance and working from home are more important than winning (in competition)," and added, "The reason startups succeed is because their employees work like hell," which caused controversy.