Wall Street stirred earlier this month when Nvidia, the chipmaker powering the AI boom, hit a record market value of $3.92 trillion, slightly surpassing Apple’s previous high of $3.915 trillion set last December.
Shortly after, Nvidia became the most valuable company in history, breaking the $4 trillion ceiling. This milestone propelled CEO Jensen Huang into the ranks of the world’s wealthiest, with a net worth exceeding $143 billion.
Huang marked the achievement with a stark warning: “everybody’s jobs will be affected.” Speaking in an interview, he suggested that AI will transform productivity by generating more value than human labor, in less time and at lower costs. However, he also maintained that new kinds of jobs would emerge, though he did not define what those might be.
“Some jobs will be lost,” Huang admitted. “Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains we see across industries will lift society.”
The promise of “lifting society” remains unclear. Despite massive investments in AI, companies and political allies of the tech elite have done little to prepare for widespread job displacement, often focusing instead on policies that benefit the wealthy.
While Nvidia’s stock continues to surge, the picture is far less positive for workers. Studies show that many employees actually experience lower productivity with AI. A 2024 survey of 2,500 workers revealed that 77% reported decreased efficiency, and 40% said AI errors increased their workload. Nearly half admitted they were unsure how to achieve the productivity gains promised by the technology.
Another large-scale study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Denmark, covering 25,000 employees across 7,000 workplaces, found that enterprise AI contributed only marginal improvements compared to historical productivity growth. For workers, AI chatbots had no measurable effect on earnings or working hours.
This contrasts with earlier predictions. Just weeks before, Huang dismissed claims by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who had warned that AI could automate half of all entry-level office jobs within five years. Huang criticized the statement as exaggerated and self-serving, suggesting it was meant to position Anthropic as the sole responsible AI developer.
Despite these contradictions, Nvidia remains in a position of dominance, controlling about 90% of the datacenter chip market. Its future relies less on selling visions of AI replacing workers and more on the constant demand for its powerful hardware across industries and government.
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