Jensen Huang: “Today, I’m even more enthusiastic about AI than I was a year ago.”

On the Development of AI in Kazakhstan: “You’ve made incredible progress in a very short time. While the rest of the world is figuring out how to get involved in what’s happening and how to build an AI economy, you here in Kazakhstan are already doing just that <...> You are inspiring all your young people, universities, and scientists from various fields to join the AI sector and become part of the AI economy. Kazakhstan has a fundamental advantage because you have vast reserves of natural resources. You have vast energy reserves. And instead of simply exporting energy, in the future you will be able to transform energy into intelligence and export intellectual value.”

On local projects: “I am very pleased to see that there is a Kazakhstani LLM model—that you are already transforming, utilizing, and processing your data into your own intellectual capital. It is important to realize that your country’s data embodies and encodes your country’s culture, its history, your humanity, and your values—all of this is embedded in the data. And this data belongs to you just as much as your natural resources. Intellectual assets are of fundamental importance. They are universal, affecting every citizen, every company, and every country. A country’s intellectual assets are shaped by its data. It’s fine if another country or company complements you, but they cannot completely replace you. And that is why you must have some capacity to provide basic infrastructure services for your own country.”

On Physical AI: “You want Kazakhstan to become a country of artificial intelligence. But AI encompasses everything—right down to physical AI. Physical AI is, of course, the largest sector of all, because much of our world revolves around interacting with and understanding the physical world. You yourselves have very important areas of application here as well. The mining industry, natural resources, and agriculture—all traditional sectors—will benefit from the next stage of physical AI’s development. Physical AI is not just robotics. It encompasses everything from the study of seismic phenomena to the mapping of mines and wells, an understanding of geography and geology—where to extract minerals and how to do so most efficiently—as well as materials science and chemical processing.”

On the possibilities of this new phase: “AI will be able to radically transform each of these areas—from the extraction and processing of minerals to the conversion of minerals into new materials. And physical AI will be involved at every stage of this process. We are currently at the very beginning of its development. This is the next wave—which is why everyone is just getting started. This is a great opportunity for you to get involved and help shape this future industry.”

On Ambition: “The only thing that matters is whether you have ambition. If you do, AI and robotics will take you to the next level. They’ll give you the opportunity to do more. If you’re a farmer and you have ambition, robots will help you run your farm. If you’re a scientist and you have ambition, your AI-powered assistant will expand the universe you can explore. If you’re an engineer with ambitions, your AI engineer will enable you to develop more sophisticated projects. So, the question is simple: do you have ambitions? I believe you do—this is the first country I’ve visited where the president has declared it a nation of artificial intelligence. In that case, AI will lift your country up. AI will lift up your people. AI will expand your companies so that you can compete and grow on a global scale. AI will transform your society.”

On the deal with Higgsfield: “You invest in people, not companies. The founders of Higgsfield are true visionaries in their field. They’ve come up with a remarkable idea. It’s not easy to bring it to life. And they face global competition. Many of them are based in the U.S., are incredibly well-funded, and have impressive experience. But these are some of the most talented people in the world. They have 600 employees working here in Kazakhstan. The average age is 25. Many of them are already engineers in the field of cutting-edge technology and computer scientists. With offices here in Kazakhstan and in the U.S., they can combine the culture and experience of two different countries. And they’re competing on the global market. I visited their office once. They start work at 5:00 p.m. You start at 5:00 p.m.? Give me my money back! But they work all night. I start at 5:00 a.m. Today I got up at 4:00 a.m.”

On agent-based systems: “Today , I’m even more enthusiastic about AI than I was a year ago. And I was already very excited a year ago. Thanks to major breakthroughs in AI over the past year, especially in the field of agent-based systems, we’ve made AI truly useful. In fact, if you look at the videos generated by Higgsfield, they’ve improved significantly in just one year. At first, Higgsfield could only generate short videos. Now it can create very long stories that are consistent both in time and space. This would be impossible without agent-based reasoning systems. And that’s why this technology has become very useful in video generation—and, of course, in text generation—as well as in programming, robotic systems, and drug development.”

A Message to 18-Year-Olds: “Today , I envy those who are 18. I was lucky because, when I was 18, personal computers had just become a reality. I’ve been working for 43 years now. My generation was defined by the advent of the computer. And four decades of our efforts have led to the emergence of artificial intelligence, which represents a complete reboot of everything we’ve done. Instead of programming a computer, we now need to learn how to program AI. So, young man here in Kazakhstan, you’re 18 years old. AI is brand-new to you right now. It’s new to everyone. I would dedicate myself to becoming the world’s best AI programmer. You know, AI has the ability to automate. It’s capable of collaborating with us and helping us. But just as you collaborate with a person—an assistant—you’ll have to learn to interact with AI as well. You need to learn how to program everything. You have to understand that the best AI programmer is the one who understands how AI works. The best user of a machine is the one who understands how the machine works. The best race car driver is the one who understands how a race car works.”