Jensen Huang: Bitcoin converts excess energy into a form of currency, and AI follows the same concept but is even more universal.

Recently, several crypto media outlets published reports about “Nvidia CEO: Bitcoin stores excess energy as a form of currency, allowing you to carry it anywhere.” In fact, this is not “news.” The source is a video shared on LinkedIn by a Latin American crypto industry professional, Julián Andrés. The video itself is a clip from Jensen Huang’s participation in a 2024 discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Jensen Huang: Bitcoin converts excess energy into currency

During the Q&A session of that discussion, an investor from a crypto startup first thanked the rise of AI for taking some of the negative PR pressure off the blockchain industry caused by Bitcoin mining. He went on to say that many power producers and energy suppliers allocate excess electricity to Bitcoin mining, as there’s a very clear market: a one-to-one and immediate feedback financial market.

He asked Jensen Huang: “Do you think similar mechanisms could emerge, such as smart grids or new energy markets, allowing companies to allocate excess electricity to AI model training?”

Jensen Huang responded: “One example today is using excess energy to convert and store it. Basically, what Bitcoin is doing is taking excess energy and converting it into a new form—called currency. And when you have this currency, you can take it anywhere you want. So you extract energy from one place, and you can then transport it across the world.”

AI is the same concept as Bitcoin, but a more universal currency

Shifting the topic, Jensen Huang described intelligence as a more universal currency, sharing exactly the same concept as Bitcoin just discussed. You find places with excess energy, build data centers there, convert and compress energy into an AI model, and then take that model for use around the world.

This article—Jensen Huang: Bitcoin converts excess energy into currency; AI is the same concept but more universal—first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.