'He's like Iron Man': Jensen Huang lit up London Tech Week — and we were in the room
LONDON — Wherever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang goes, excitement follows — this time, all the way to London Tech Week.
The Nvidia boss — whom Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives dubs the 'godfather of AI' — is more like a rockstar these days, given his wide-spanning effect on the AI industry.
'The amount of infrastructure required for AI wouldn't be possible without that man,' one attendee at London Tech Week said.
'He's like Iron Man,' the attendee added, referencing the popular Marvel superhero who is a tech billionaire inventor under the name of Tony Stark.
The lines to get into the Olympia auditorium were already building around 40 minutes before Jensen was set to take the stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not everyone managed to get in — but there were helpfully screens around the venue where people could catch a glimpse of Huang's talk.
The Nvidia CEO gave his continued bullish assessment of artificial intelligence, calling it an 'incredible technology' and saying it should be seen as infrastructure, just like electricity.
UK gets glowing endorsement from Huang
There weren't any multi-billion dollar investments touted at London Tech Week. But the biggest win for Starmer and the U.K. by far was Huang's lavish praise for the country.
Wearing his trademark leather jacket, Huang called the U.K. the 'envy of the world' that is in the midst of a 'Goldilocks circumstance,' boasting a vibrant venture capital ecosystem, as well as budding AI entrepreneurs from leading firms including Google DeepMind, Synthesia, Wayve and ElevenLabs.
Speaking alongside Huang, Starmer spoke in an animated manner as he touted Nvidia's investments in the U.K. Earlier in the day, the U.S. chipmaker announced a new 'U.K. sovereign AI industry forum,' as well as commitments from cloud vendors Nscale and Nebius to deploy new facilities containing thousands of its Blackwell GPU chips.
Starmer spoke at length about AI's promise and the ways in which it could ease the burdens faced by the U.K.'s public sector institutions, from hospitals to schools.
Huang added that the U.K. is 'such a great place to invest,' noting that Nvidia plans to partner with the country to upskill tech workers and build out domestic AI infrastructure.
'Infrastructure enables more research — more research, more breakthroughs, more companies,' the Nvidia chief said. 'That flywheel will start taking off. It's already quite large, but we're just going to get that flywheel going.'
Starmer thanked Huang for his point, commenting that 'the confidence it gives when you explain it that way is huge.'
'From our point of view, we're really pleased to be seen that way,' the U.K. leader said.
The pair shook hands at the end.
Altogether, there was a lot of energy in the room. Huang said he was 'excited' for London Tech Week, and he was met with a round of applause from the audience.
Europe wants a piece of Huang
Huang has become the CEO everyone wants to be seen with. Nvidia has positioned itself as central to the AI revolution, which many commentators say is in the early innings.
Nvidia wants that revolution to be built on its chips. And for countries like the U.K., these moments provide a chance for the country to tout its investment potential and for its leader to publicly share a stage with the man seen as powering the AI push.
London was Huang's first stop in a broader European tour.
The Nvidia boss will travel to Paris later this week, where the chipmaker will host its GTC conference. Politicians including President Emmanuel Macron, who has driven France's ambition to become a European AI hub, will also likely want some face time with Huang.
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4 hours ago
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'He's like Iron Man': Jensen Huang lit up London Tech Week — and we were in the room
LONDON — Wherever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang goes, excitement follows — this time, all the way to London Tech Week. The Nvidia boss — whom Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives dubs the 'godfather of AI' — is more like a rockstar these days, given his wide-spanning effect on the AI industry. 'The amount of infrastructure required for AI wouldn't be possible without that man,' one attendee at London Tech Week said. 'He's like Iron Man,' the attendee added, referencing the popular Marvel superhero who is a tech billionaire inventor under the name of Tony Stark. The lines to get into the Olympia auditorium were already building around 40 minutes before Jensen was set to take the stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not everyone managed to get in — but there were helpfully screens around the venue where people could catch a glimpse of Huang's talk. The Nvidia CEO gave his continued bullish assessment of artificial intelligence, calling it an 'incredible technology' and saying it should be seen as infrastructure, just like electricity. UK gets glowing endorsement from Huang There weren't any multi-billion dollar investments touted at London Tech Week. But the biggest win for Starmer and the U.K. by far was Huang's lavish praise for the country. Wearing his trademark leather jacket, Huang called the U.K. the 'envy of the world' that is in the midst of a 'Goldilocks circumstance,' boasting a vibrant venture capital ecosystem, as well as budding AI entrepreneurs from leading firms including Google DeepMind, Synthesia, Wayve and ElevenLabs. Speaking alongside Huang, Starmer spoke in an animated manner as he touted Nvidia's investments in the U.K. Earlier in the day, the U.S. chipmaker announced a new 'U.K. sovereign AI industry forum,' as well as commitments from cloud vendors Nscale and Nebius to deploy new facilities containing thousands of its Blackwell GPU chips. Starmer spoke at length about AI's promise and the ways in which it could ease the burdens faced by the U.K.'s public sector institutions, from hospitals to schools. Huang added that the U.K. is 'such a great place to invest,' noting that Nvidia plans to partner with the country to upskill tech workers and build out domestic AI infrastructure. 'Infrastructure enables more research — more research, more breakthroughs, more companies,' the Nvidia chief said. 'That flywheel will start taking off. It's already quite large, but we're just going to get that flywheel going.' Starmer thanked Huang for his point, commenting that 'the confidence it gives when you explain it that way is huge.' 'From our point of view, we're really pleased to be seen that way,' the U.K. leader said. The pair shook hands at the end. Altogether, there was a lot of energy in the room. Huang said he was 'excited' for London Tech Week, and he was met with a round of applause from the audience. Europe wants a piece of Huang Huang has become the CEO everyone wants to be seen with. Nvidia has positioned itself as central to the AI revolution, which many commentators say is in the early innings. Nvidia wants that revolution to be built on its chips. And for countries like the U.K., these moments provide a chance for the country to tout its investment potential and for its leader to publicly share a stage with the man seen as powering the AI push. London was Huang's first stop in a broader European tour. The Nvidia boss will travel to Paris later this week, where the chipmaker will host its GTC conference. Politicians including President Emmanuel Macron, who has driven France's ambition to become a European AI hub, will also likely want some face time with Huang.
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Public perceptions of Starmer and Farage are perhaps a bit hazy
The optics could hardly be more different. On one stage, Nigel Farage was in a Welsh former steel town talking about reopening coalmines. On another, Keir Starmer enjoyed a cosy chat with a tech multi-billionaire wearing a £7,000 leather jacket. Does this therefore show that the Reform UK leader has been successful in, to use his words, parking his tanks on Labour's lawn and becoming the voice of working people? As ever in politics, it's all a bit more complicated. For one thing, Starmer is not exactly a stranger to the factory floor. Little more than a week ago, he used a glass plant in St Helens, Merseyside, as the backdrop for a speech condemning Reform's fiscal plans. Recent months have seen him pop up at car production lines, armaments companies, rail infrastructure depots, you name it. Additionally, as prime minister you need to take every industry seriously, and it made sense for Starmer to open London tech week alongside Jensen Huang, even if the head of US semiconductor firm Nvidia is a man whose trademark look is a Tom Ford leather jacket. The complications work both ways. For all that Farage used his speech in Port Talbot to deliver a Donald Trump-like message of fossil fuel-led reindustrialisation, his natural milieu involves a bit less dirt under the fingernails. To take one example, on Monday Farage briefly mentioned being in Las Vegas two weeks ago 'launching our crypto and digital assets bill', when he was in fact a guest speaker at the lavish Bitcoin 2025 conference. It is not known if Farage was being paid for the appearance, but he is no stranger to corporate gigs. Since becoming an MP he has trousered £40,000 for a speech to an offshore taxation conference, and £280,000 promoting gold bullion, not to mention a TV job that pays about £2,500 per hour. And yet, in a poll released last week, it emerged that slightly more British voters think Farage – a public school-educated former City trader – is more working class than Starmer, who is, as we heard many times during the general election, the son of a toolmaker. What is going on? One bit of context is that actually not that many people believed it about either – 19% for Farage, and 17% with Starmer. Why so few for the prime minister? In part, it's likely to be his long pre-politics career as a lawyer and then director of public prosecutions – and particularly the knighthood that resulted. More generally, it's fair to say that voters' impressions of politicians are often a bit hazy. A long-running YouGov tracker of the most popular British politicians has Brexit-backing Conservative peer David Frost top, and the shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, third, unlikely results widely assumed to be because people have mistaken them for the more fondly recalled late TV host and Olympic cyclist respectively. More pertinent is that when it comes to actual voter support, Reform are now the top choice among working-class voters. One poll last month said that just 17% supported Labour, against 39% for Reform. Farage is very aware of this current advantage, and makes a point of regular speeches at working men's clubs, channelling Trump's paradoxical political status as a wealthy man who largely spends time with other wealthy men who nonetheless attracts support in deprived areas. All that said, Starmer is determined to shift those Reform tanks by pointing out another similarity with Trump – the fact that Farage's policies seem more generally aimed at the managerial class than those on the factory floor. Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, argued recently that Farage was 'cosplaying' as a voice of the working classes, and that his opposition to the government's employment rights bill and lack of a coherent economic plan showed his lack of authenticity. Even as Farage talks up the return of heavy industry and calls for the water industry to be nationalised, expect more of the same from Downing Street, plus Starmer's insistence that a 'Liz Truss 2.0' policy of mass tax cuts would hurt ordinary families the most. And if you run a factory, brace yourself for more political visits.
