Jensen Huang has a message for Europe: stop overthinking AI or get left behind

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Europe to move faster on AI in a conversation with Germany Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday.

Nadja Wohlleben/Getty Images Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wants Europe to be less cautious in its approach to AI innovation.

Huang told Germany's chancellor that the country and others in Europe are overreliant on regulation.

"I think you overthink things," he told British journalists on a trip to the UK last week.

Cast off the shackles and be bolder, or risk losing the AI race for good.

That's the pointed message Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has delivered to European leaders during his trip to the continent over the past week.

Over the last seven days, Huang has visited France, Sweden, the UK, and Germany ahead of Nvidia's GTC event in Berlin, which began Tuesday.

During that time, he's been clear that he believes the continent needs to move faster on artificial intelligence and rely less heavily on regulating the sector.

Huang made the case most directly on Monday evening in Berlin, during a public conversation with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Asked how Europe should regulate AI, Huang said safety had to be paramount, but cautioned that policymakers could not regulate their way to technological leadership.

"There's nothing to regulate if the industry doesn't thrive," Huang told Merz, arguing that Germany needed to foster a domestic AI industry while ensuring it developed safely and responsibly.

He said that policymakers should focus on regulating AI applications, similar to the way they regulate products that use the internet, rather than trying to regulate the underlying technology wholesale.

"We should be regulating the applications right away," Huang said.

Merz replied that Europe was still trying to find the balance between innovation and regulation.