Jensen Huang: ‘It’s a mistake to say AI threatens the software industry’

“I think the market was wrong,” Huang told CNBC after this week’s fourth quarter 2025 financial report. “A large number of software companies will use agent-based AI to develop software and improve operational efficiency.”

Nvidia CEO uses Microsoft’s web browser and office software as examples for his point of view. According to him, AI possesses the ability to interact with users, while software is the foundation that helps everything become more efficient.

Previously, technology leaders were divided into many opinions about whether artificial intelligence would bring the programming software business to an end or not. According to Business Insiderconcerns increased after Wall Street noted that since early February, the market had sold off, causing the capitalization value of many large technology companies to decrease by more than 1,000 billion USD before recovering slightly. One of the identified causes comes from a series of programming AI tools that are continuously launched at a fast pace and with groundbreaking upgrades, such as Anthropic with Opus 4.6, OpenAI with GPT-5.3-Codex, or previously Microsoft GitHub Copilot X (2026).

At the Cisco AI Summit 2026 event earlier this month, Mr. Huang said that software is a tool for AI to use, not a replacement. Artificial intelligence will use the functions provided by the software instead of inventing its own tools.

“There is a perception that the programming tools sector is in decline and will be replaced by AI, clearly shown by the fact that the stock prices of many software companies are under great pressure. This is the most absurd thing in the world and time will prove it,” he said at the time.

The comment was made by Jensen Huang after an optimistic fourth quarter 2025 financial report, with revenue increasing 73%, to 68.13 billion USD over the same period last year, far exceeding analysts’ forecast of 66.21 billion USD. In the first quarter of 2026, the company estimates revenue will reach 78 billion USD, higher than the forecast of 72.6 billion USD.

“Demand for GPUs in the world is growing exponentially,” he told the media on February 25 when announcing financial results. “I think we’re seeing that, so much so that even six-year-old GPUs are still running at full capacity in data centers, and their prices in the market are continuing to rise.”

Nvidia does not report GPU sales in China, although it has been licensed to sell a limited number of versions. Colette Kress, Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer, explains Bloomberg: “A small amount of H200 for Chinese customers has been approved by the US, but has not yet generated any revenue. We do not know whether imports into China will be allowed. Chinese competitors have also made recent progress, which has the potential to change the structure of the global AI industry in the long term.”