I keep coming back to a simple question: when one of the most powerful figures in artificial intelligence says you “want to be part of almost everything Elon is involved in,” what does that reveal about where tech is heading next? Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s praise for Elon Musk, and his regret about not backing Musk’s AI startup more aggressively, has become a kind of Rorschach test for how investors, founders, and engineers see the balance of power in the AI race.
To understand why Huang’s comments landed so forcefully, I need to unpack not just what he said, but why he said it, how Musk responded, and what the reaction tells me about the future of AI platforms, chips, and capital. The story here is less about flattery and more about how two of the most influential people in technology are quietly sketching the next map of who matters in artificial intelligence.
Huang’s “you want to be part of Elon” moment
When I watch Jensen Huang talk about Elon Musk, I don’t hear a casual compliment; I hear a strategic admission from the person whose chips power much of the AI boom. In a widely shared conversation, Huang said he regretted not investing more in Musk’s AI company xAI and added that almost everything Musk touches is something you want to be involved in. That framing matters, because it suggests Huang sees Musk not just as a customer or rival, but as a gravitational force in the AI ecosystem whose projects—from rockets to robots—tend to reshape markets rather than merely participate in them.
The tone of that exchange comes through clearly in the original video of Huang’s remarks, where he talks through Musk’s track record and the opportunity around xAI in front of a live audience, and I can hear how deliberate his choice of words is in the recorded interview. Follow-up coverage emphasizes that Huang specifically said he wished he had put more money into xAI and that “almost everything Elon’s part of, you want to be part of,” a line that has been quoted repeatedly in reports on his comments about regretting not investing more in xAI. For a CEO who usually talks in terms of architectures and roadmaps, that kind of personal endorsement stands out as a signal to investors and partners about where he thinks the next big AI platforms may emerge.
Why xAI became the focal point
From my perspective, Huang’s regret about xAI is really a proxy for a bigger anxiety: missing out on the next foundational AI platform. xAI is Musk’s attempt to build a rival to the largest AI labs, and Huang’s comments suggest he sees that effort as more than a side project. When he says he wishes he had invested more, he is effectively admitting that he underestimated how quickly xAI could matter in a landscape dominated by models like GPT-4 and Claude. That kind of miscalculation is rare for Nvidia, which has spent years positioning itself at the center of AI training and inference.
Reports on Huang’s remarks spell out that he specifically tied his regret to xAI and framed Musk’s involvement as the key reason he wanted more exposure, underscoring that his concern was not just about one funding round but about being underweight on a Musk-led AI platform that could demand huge volumes of Nvidia hardware. Coverage of his comments about xAI and missed investment makes clear that he sees Musk’s AI venture as strategically important, not just financially attractive. When I connect that with the broader narrative of Nvidia supplying GPUs to hyperscalers and startups alike, Huang’s words read like a public course correction: a way of telling the market he intends to be closer to whatever xAI becomes.
Musk’s understated response and what it signals
What struck me next was how Elon Musk chose to respond. Instead of turning Huang’s praise into a victory lap, he replied with a brief, almost understated acknowledgment, calling the comment “nice” and moving on. That minimalism is revealing: Musk is clearly aware that having Nvidia’s CEO publicly say you want to be part of almost everything he does is a powerful endorsement, but he also knows that leaning too hard into it could look like gloating at a moment when regulators and competitors are already scrutinizing his influence across multiple industries.
Coverage of Musk’s reaction notes that he replied to Huang’s remarks with a short message that included the phrase “nice of Jensen,” a response that was picked up in technology and business press as a sign of mutual respect between the two leaders. Reports on how Musk replied to Huang’s comment emphasize that he did not expand into a long thread or argument, and a separate account of the exchange similarly highlights his concise “nice of Jensen” reply to the public compliment. To me, that brevity reads as strategic: Musk lets Huang’s words stand on their own, reinforcing the idea that top-tier AI infrastructure and top-tier AI applications are increasingly intertwined.
The Nvidia–Musk dynamic in the AI hardware race
When I zoom out, the relationship between Nvidia and Musk looks less like a simple supplier–customer pairing and more like a feedback loop. Musk’s companies—from Tesla’s autonomous driving systems to xAI’s model training—are among the most demanding buyers of high-end AI chips, and Nvidia is the dominant provider of that hardware. Huang’s comment that you want to be part of almost everything Musk does can be read as an acknowledgment that Musk’s projects are the kind that push Nvidia’s GPUs to their limits, forcing the company to innovate faster on performance, networking, and energy efficiency.
In a video interview focused on the AI boom, Huang talks about the scale of demand from leading AI players and reiterates his view that Musk’s initiatives are the kind of efforts you want to be close to, reinforcing the idea that Nvidia’s roadmap is shaped by customers who operate at extreme scale. That perspective comes through in the discussion where he says he wants to be part of almost everything Musk is involved in, a line captured in the interview about Musk’s projects. When I connect that with the broader reporting on his regret about xAI, the pattern is clear: Huang is signaling that Nvidia’s future growth is tied to being embedded in the most ambitious AI deployments, and he sees Musk as one of the few people consistently building at that level.
How investors and fans read Huang’s praise
Huang’s comments didn’t just echo through boardrooms; they ricocheted across investor forums and fan communities that track Musk’s every move. As I read through reactions, I see two main threads: some investors treat Huang’s words as validation that betting on Musk-linked stocks remains a rational long-term strategy, while others worry that such concentrated praise could fuel unhealthy hero worship and overexposure to a single personality. Both reactions are understandable in a market where narratives can move share prices as quickly as earnings reports.
On a Tesla-focused investor forum, for example, users dissected Huang’s statement about wanting to be part of almost everything Musk is involved in, debating what it might mean for Tesla’s access to Nvidia hardware and for xAI’s valuation. The discussion in a thread about Huang’s “want to be part of” remark shows how retail shareholders interpret his praise as a bullish signal, with some commenters explicitly linking it to their conviction in Tesla and related ventures. At the same time, a separate analysis of Musk’s capabilities describes him as “superhuman” in terms of workload and ambition, arguing that his ability to juggle multiple companies is central to why influential figures like Huang want proximity to his projects, a view laid out in detail in coverage of why some observers see Musk as “superhuman”. Taken together, these reactions show how a single sentence from Nvidia’s CEO can reinforce the mythology around Musk while also sharpening investor focus on the concrete AI infrastructure behind that myth.
“Saying the quiet part out loud”: the power-law logic
What resonates most with me about Huang’s line is that many people in tech heard it as “saying the quiet part out loud.” In venture capital and startup circles, there’s a long-standing belief that a small number of founders and companies generate a disproportionate share of returns. By openly stating that you want to be part of almost everything Elon Musk is involved in, Huang effectively endorsed that power-law logic in public, acknowledging that some individuals are so central to innovation that it makes sense to follow them across multiple ventures rather than evaluate each project in isolation.
That interpretation is explicit in a widely shared post that frames Huang’s remark as an admission that capital and talent tend to cluster around a handful of outlier founders, using his words as a case study in how the tech industry really works behind the scenes. The commentary around Nvidia’s CEO “saying the quiet part” about wanting to be involved in Musk’s projects is captured in a detailed breakdown of his quote and its implications for startup investing, which I see reflected in the analysis shared via a widely circulated LinkedIn post. That same sentiment shows up in more informal spaces too, where clips of Huang’s comments are paired with captions about following “winners” and concentrating bets, including a social video that highlights his praise for Musk’s ventures in a short, shareable format on Instagram. When I put all of this together, Huang’s statement looks less like a one-off compliment and more like a public endorsement of a strategy many investors already practice quietly: find the rare founders who bend industries and stay close to everything they build.
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