Jensen Huang’s visit to Sweden is his third in four years. His last visit was as recently as last year, when he appeared in Linköping and was appointed an honorary doctor at the university. He is the CEO and founder of the world’s largest company by market capitalization, whose chips drive much of the world’s AI development.
“I love the food,” he jokes at the launch of the Wallenberg Sphere’s new supercomputer, Sferical One, but adds that he is more drawn by the entrepreneurship here.
Not like a child
Jensen Huang is not among the business leaders who have warned of the potential dangers of AI, despite an agent escaping from the AI company OpenAI in the so-called Hugging Face incident, and another hacking Australian Medicare.
Huang points out that AI is, after all, built by humans. If a model is unsafe, don’t release it, he argues.
“It’s not like we’re raising a child. Every day it gets better than it was yesterday, and that’s not the case with children.”
On the contrary, he is somewhat dismissive of the risks and says that we should never hear about any Swedish AI running amok.
“It’s unnecessary. The technology to contain and secure your agents is well known. The methods are here, the technology is available,” he says.
However, safety barriers may be needed.
“You can’t hope, dream, regulate or advocate for AI safety. You have to create the technology to make it safe,” he said at a press conference.
Safe to own
The billion-dollar Sferical One has been in operation since late summer. It is powered by AI giant Nvidia’s technology and is estimated to have cost more than a billion. The supercomputer is shared by AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Saab and SEB, with SKF as a strategic partner.
Expectations for what the system will be used for are high. SEB believes it can improve customer relations, AstraZeneca wants to develop new and more personalized medicines, and Saab talks about predicting the future in certain scenarios. Several also highlight the security benefits of owning the technology themselves.
“It’s about the fact that this supercomputer is on Swedish soil; the data doesn’t leave the country. That means these companies can use it for very sensitive data,” says Jenny Nordlöw, CEO of the operating company Sferical AI, to TT.
Facts: Sferical One
The Sferical One supercomputer is owned and operated by AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Saab, SEB and Wallenberg Investments, with SKF as a strategic partner.
It consists of 16 server cabinets of Nvidia’s large AI server GB300 NVL72, with a total of 1,152 Blackwell Ultra graphics processors working together.
Sferical One is located in Linköping and has cost more than one billion kronor (about $95 million).
Source: Sferical One.