How did Nvidia get to be — on and off with Apple — the biggest listed company in the world? There are two answers. One is that it is the dominant maker of chips that power the artificial intelligence age. The other is that it has benefited from the magical mathematics of addressable markets.
Nvidia’s founder Jensen Huang this week treated attendees of CES, a big tech showcase in Las Vegas, to many new products and projections. Attendees applauded as he brandished a selection of unremarkable-looking black boxes and devices. But the real drama was saved for his vision of “physical AI”, the next frontier of artificial intelligence, where intricate models will birth not just words but robotic actions.
Even for a company worth $3.4tn, the numbers bandied around are big. Humanoid robots alone could be a market of $38bn, Goldman Sachs has suggested. But that’s a pittance compared with autonomous vehicles, in effect robots without legs, which Huang sees as a “multitrillion” industry — a claim echoed by his customer and Tesla boss Elon Musk. Manufacturing, ripe for robotisation, is a $50tn market.