Nvidia CEO says AI data center spending will last 7–8 years amid $650B capex boom

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back on investor concerns about overbuilding data center capacity, calling the current wave of AI infrastructure spending both sustainable and necessary.

“The demand is just incredibly high,” Huang said on CNBC, adding that the AI buildout will continue for seven to eight years. He characterized the effort as a “once in a generation infrastructure buildout.”

The comments came as Nvidia shares rebounded sharply Friday, jumping as much as 7.5% in their biggest intraday gain since April. The rally added more than $300 billion in market value, partially recovering from a $500 billion selloff over the past week.

Investor sentiment improved after Amazon announced plans to spend $200 billion this year on data centers, chips, and other infrastructure. Combined spending from Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft is expected to reach $650 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, a 60% increase from last year.

While shares of big tech remain under pressure, the surge in spending has lifted infrastructure providers across the AI supply chain.

Semiconductor stocks, including Broadcom and Marvell, climbed 6% and 7% respectively, alongside digital storage firms Sandisk and Western Digital, which rose 4% and 7%. Cloud services firm CoreWeave surged 20%.