Ed Zitron told The Tech Report that Jensen Huang's exit marks the end of the AI bubble.
Zitron, writer of Where's Your Ed At and host of Better Offline, argued the market ran on Huang for four years. He pointed to the 2019 Mellanox buy and the supercomputer built with Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, and Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief, that preceded ChatGPT, Zitron said. He said Huang then backstopped doubts with cash, including more than $140 billion pumped into the market by Nvidia on his watch. He cited a $5 billion Anthropic check and Nvidia support for a $35 billion to $45 billion Anthropic compute deal, plus trailing free cash flow near $130 billion as of that talk, Zitron said.
Host Isaac asked how Huang's resignation affects Anthropic's IPO due in a week. Zitron said Nvidia was meant to put $10 billion into the offering, a structure he called insulting to investors. He predicted Anthropic still pushes the listing with help from Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, Micron, Broadcom and TSMC, Zitron said. He added the stock will likely pop even as he argued the company should not be public.
Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer now in interim leadership, knew about the China revenue and wafer commitments, Zitron claimed. He pointed to a Wall Street Journal report that Kress balked at a $250 billion OpenAI backstop in Ohio, later cut to $100 billion, Zitron said. He argued only Huang could force buyers like Amazon into early rack receipts worth billions, and he dismissed Rene Haas, Arm's chief executive, as a replacement enforcer. Zitron cited about 1,800 Nvidia staff backing Huang's return in an internal box at a 42,000-person company, then dismissed it.
He rejected Arm, Google TPUs and AMD Instinct as near-term substitutes, citing Nvidia's cash hoard and credit, Zitron said. Separate reporting by TechSpot has linked Nvidia circular financing deals to high GPU prices after Huang's resignation, TechSpot reported. CoreWeave shows the bind, Zitron said, since its 2023 loan had Nvidia backing and Nvidia later became its customer to book revenue.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on television that Huang's firing puts no one off the hook, Zitron said. Dario Amodei, Anthropic's chief, dislikes Huang yet depends on Nvidia chips, Zitron said, while claiming a three-day chip switch. Who writes the next backstop when the GPUs pile up and Huang can't take the call?
