AI is Not the Only Focus, According to Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates
In a recent public statement, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, one of the world’s leading AI (artificial intelligence) chip manufacturers, emphasized the close relationship between AI development and energy storage. Rather than solely focusing on computational power, Huang believes that the comprehensive energy consumption of AI needs to be considered:
“The purpose of AI is about photovoltaic (solar power) and energy storage! We cannot only think about computational power. If you thought computers could never be faster, you might soon conclude that we will need (energy from) 14 planets and 3 galaxies, as well as 4 more suns, to supply energy for all these (AI) things.”
It’s worth noting that OpenAI founder Sam Altman shares a similar perspective. Altman believes that the future development of AI will heavily rely on energy, especially the advancements in photovoltaic technology and energy storage:
“The future of AI technology depends on energy, and we need more photovoltaic cells and energy storage devices.”
According to Sohu (China), by 2025, the renowned global chip manufacturer TSMC alone will consume 12.5% of Taiwan’s energy.
Furthermore, based on Google’s energy consumption of 18.3 TWh (terawatt-hours) in 2021, with AI accounting for 10-15%, its AI energy consumption could reach a maximum of 27.4 TWh per year after the full deployment of AI search capabilities. This figure is almost equivalent to Ireland’s annual electricity usage.
Researchers estimate that with the current growth rate, some new AI servers could consume over 85 TWh per year, surpassing the annual energy consumption of several small countries.
Sam Altman is currently investing in Helion Energy and Oklo, nuclear energy companies. TerraPower, a company co-founded by billionaire Bill Gates and Microsoft, is planning to develop a new generation nuclear power plant called ‘Natrium,’ which is expected to start production in 2030. Bill Gates wrote on his blog, “The world needs to trust in nuclear energy. There is no other reliable clean energy source, and there is no clean energy source as reliable as nuclear power.”
Elon Musk, on the other hand, is the Chairman of SolarCity, a company that was ranked second on Solar Power World’s list of solar system installation companies in the US in 2013.
A Tesla report in 2023 set a target for humanity to invest $424 billion in solar energy panels and about $2.2 trillion in electrochemical production factories over the next 20 years.
Who Can Benefit?
According to Sohu, in the context of China facing a declining population dividend and economic pressure, Chinese companies in the electrical equipment industry have a “clear advantage when expanding overseas.”
“In terms of technology, China’s optoelectronics industry is currently leading the world in single-crystal silicon solar cell technology and high-performance component production. Meanwhile, the energy storage industry has made significant breakthroughs in energy storage battery technology and energy management systems.”
The Chinese news outlet also believes that smart investors can seize this opportunity:
“From an investment standpoint, in the short term, China’s optoelectronics and energy storage industries have experienced a significant downturn in 2023 and are relatively low in history. From a cyclical perspective, the optoelectronics industry is near its bottom. This industry is expected to create a ‘securities inflection point’ in the next step. Leading companies with competitive advantages are expected to open a ‘David double-click’ after both the volume and profits increase and market confidence recovers.”
The stock inflection point refers to the increase or decrease in the value of existing stocks on the market.
Davis double-click is an investment strategy that involves buying potential stocks with stable growth when they are undervalued and selling them when the market booms.
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