In the world of tech few events are as keenly awaited
as Jensen Huang's speech at Nvidia's annual developer conference.
And at this year's gathering in San Jose on March 16th his talk did not disappoint.
Over two hours, the boss of the world's most valuable company unveiled new chips, artificial-intelligence models
and systems for everything from space-based data centres to self-driving cars.
He went on to claim that this array of new products
will help Nvidia sell over $1trn-worth of AI-related hardware in the coming years.
Among engineers, the reaction was enthusiastic.
Among investors, it was guarded.
Doubts have grown about the durability of the AI boom.
And Nvidia, the biggest beneficiary of the spending surge, has become a lightning rod for those concerns.
On February 25th the firm reported record quarterly profits and forecast strong growth.
Yet its share price fell the next day.
Since peaking in October it has dropped by about 13%,
even as an index of American chipmakers has risen by around 6%.
Such bearishness marks a change to Nvidia's fortunes.
The company's graphics processing units (GPUs), the workhorse semiconductors used by AI models,
account for over two-thirds of the total processing power available on the world's AI chips.
In the year to January the firm generated $216bn in revenue,
eight times what it made three years earlier.