Nvidia's Huang hails Europe's AI potential, flanked by robot ducks

By Toby Sterling and Hakan Ersen

AMSTERDAM, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes that Europe's engineering expertise gives it an edge in physical AI and robotics, he said on Wednesday as the US tech giant announced expanded partnerships with European manufacturers and startups.

"Every company in Europe will become an AI company," Huang said at Nvidia's GTC conference in Berlin, which caps a European tour that has already taken him through London, Paris, Stockholm and Dublin.

"No region has dedicated itself to making mechatronics, electronics and mechanical systems at the level of precision and craft as the European region."

In a demonstration of Europe's AI creativity, Huang shared the stage with tiny duck-shaped, AI-trained robots developed by French startup Pollen Robotics in collaboration with Hugging Face, asking them to perform somersaults.

Nvidia says it has committed nearly $10 billion to Europe's technology ecosystem. It has established an early lead in supplying the processors and software needed for robotic 'brains', giving it a commercial interest in Europe's industry succeeding.

Among partnerships announced on Wednesday, Germany's Agile Robots plans to produce 1,000 to 2,000 petite humanoids next year in collaboration with Nvidia, CEO Zhaopeng Chen told Reuters. Production is due to begin late this year.

Huang said that Europe — often left behind by the US and Asia in the AI race and with no real home-grown player at the scale of an Nvidia, Anthropic or OpenAI — needed to make sure it was playing a central role.

"To be part of this AI economy, you don't want to just be consuming the AI; you want to be producing the AI. We could do all of that here in Europe," he said.

Separately on Wednesday, Nvidia showcased a so-called new DSX POD design for factory-built data centre modules using its Vera Rubin platform. It said the modules could be deployed in as little as two weeks, down from six months.

However, not all went to plan on stage.

The Microducks showed that even with the power of AI, getting robots to follow instructions is not foolproof. Three promptly keeled over when Huang ordered them to take a nap, but the fourth needed extra persuasion. 

One appeared distracted and faced the wrong way as Huang wrapped up his speech. "Pay attention, stay focused," he told it sternly.

(Reporting by Hakan Ersen, Paul Sandle and Toby SterlingEditing by Jan Harvey, Adam Jourdan and David Goodman)