Nvidia CEO says U.S. data centers take 3 years, but China ‘can build a hospital in a weekend’

While the US maintains an edge in AI chips, he warned that China could build large projects at dizzying speeds.

“If you want to build a data center here in the United States, it will probably take about three years from breaking ground to building an AI supercomputer,” Huang said. He said Center for Strategic and International Studies President John Hammer in late November. “They can build a hospital in a weekend.”

The speed at which China can build infrastructure is just one of his concerns. He is also concerned about countries’ relative energy capacity to support the AI ​​boom.

China “has twice as much energy as we do as a nation, and our economy is bigger than theirs. This doesn’t make sense to me,” Huang said.

He added that China’s energy capacity continues to grow “straight up,” while U.S. capacity remains relatively flat.

However, Huang emphasized that Nvidia is “generations ahead” of China in AI chip technology to support demand for the technology and semiconductor manufacturing process.

But he warned against complacency on this front, adding, “Anyone who thinks China is incapable of manufacturing is missing a big idea.”

However, Huang is optimistic about Nvidia’s future, citing President Donald Trump’s push for it Bring back the beach Manufacturing jobs and incentivize Artificial intelligence investments.

“Insatiable demand for artificial intelligence”

Early last month, Hwang made headlines with a prediction China will win the AI ​​race— a message he amended shortly thereafter, saying the country was “a nanosecond behind America” in the race in statement Subscriber to his company X account.

Nvidia is just one of the big tech companies spending billions of dollars to build a data center in the US, experts say luck It could reach more than $100 billion in the next year alone.

The average cost of a data center ranges from $10 million to $15 million per megawatt, and typical data centers on the smaller side require 40 megawatts, said Raul Martinec, CEO of DataBank, a company that contracts with tech giants to build data centers.

“In the US, we believe 5 to 7 gigawatts will come online in the next year to support this insatiable demand for AI,” Martinek said.

This amounts to $50 billion at the low end, and $105 billion at the high end.