AI robotics is Europe’s big chance, but energy supply is key: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

With recent advancements in AI, European giants including Siemens, Volve, Mercedes-Benz Group, and Schaeffler have announced new projects in partnership with other technology companies last year.

Big tech has also been heavily investing in AI-powered robots. In September last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that 80% of his company’s valuation would soon come from the in-house developed Optimus humanoid, while Google DeepMind has already released AI models in partnership with NVIDIA to work on physical AI.

Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google DeepMind and US-based robotics firm Boston Dynamics said they are bringing Gemini-powered humanoids. Using Google’s and Boston Dynamics’expertise in software and hardware, the partnership will put humanoid robots on Hyundai’s factory floors, where they will attempt to complete manufacturing tasks.

According to Dealroom, companies working on robotics have managed to raise $26.5 billion last year. While Europe definitely has an edge when it comes to manufacturing on an industrial scale, the region has one of the highest energy prices in the world. The NVIDIA CEO said if Europe wants to seize the opportunity, it will have to “get serious” about energy supply.

“I think that it’s fairly certain that you have to get serious about increasing your energy supply so that you could invest in the infrastructure layer, so that you could have a rich ecosystem of artificial intelligence here in Europe,” Huang said.

With tech companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others pouring billions of dollars into data centres and infrastructure to power AI, Huang told the audience at WEF 2026 that the technology has started the “largest infrastructure buildout in human history.” He went on to say that tech companies are just getting started, as there are trillions of dollars of infrastructure that still need to be built to meet the ever increasing energy needs.