NVIDIA's CEO: AI Won’t Replace Software Tools

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has dismissed concerns that AI will replace software and related tools at a time when a sharp selloff in global software stocks gained pace at the start of February.

This week, AI company Anthropic released new specialised plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent, designed to automate complex white-collar tasks. This announcement triggered a massive global sell-off in software, legal tech and IT services stocks.

Speaking at the AI conference in San Francisco hosted by Cisco Systems on 4 February, Jensen said that software is a tool and there is a “notion that the tool industry is in decline and will be replaced by AI”.

“You could tell because there’s a whole bunch of software companies whose stock prices are under a lot of pressure,” he added, “because somehow AI is going to replace them. It is the most illogical thing in the world and time will prove itself.”

To explain his point the CEO emphasised that the software tools are still needed because they are the initial tools. “If you were a human or robot, artificial general robotics, would you use tools or reinvent tools?” he said. “The answer is obviously to use the tools.”

Working with electrons not atoms

Sat alongside Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco, Jensen outlined that future AI is going to understand the physical world and understand causality.

He explained that currently AI can’t understand the idea that if you knock over one domino, it will cause the others to fall over one by one. But Jensen predicts that this is the future of the development of intelligence, to understand what the effect of something is and what could come next.

“The industry that Chuck and I have been part of is about creating tools,” he says explaining the opportunity this presents. “We have been in the screwdriver hammer business. For the first time in history, we are going to create what people call labour, but augmented labour.”

Giving an example, he said that the idea of a self-driving car is advanced, but next to a digital chauffeur it is incomparable because the lifetime is timeless.

Jensen adds that this is all part of a shift of becoming technology-first, because this means “you’re dealing with electrons, not atoms and electrons, there’s a lot more of them”.

NVIDIA and OpenAI

NVIDIA is not holding back on its commitment to AI, continuing to invest in Series funding for startups including Synthesia at the start of 2026.

The firm’s funding goes beyond startups, and Jensen has laid out plans to continue investing in AI powerhouse OpenAI.

Despite speculation of disagreements between the two firms, Jensen told CNBC on 3 February: “There’s no drama involved. Everything’s on track.”

“It’s complete nonsense,” he added, discussing the rumours. “We love working with OpenAI. We are incredibly honoured and delighted to be able to invest in their next round. And so we’re privileged that they’re inviting us to invest for each one of their rounds.”

“We would love to be invited, and we would consider, of course, investing in it,” he said.

This shows Jensen’s commitment to playing his part in growing the AI-verse, utilising existing software tools to do so.