Transcription
So, we're here in Sherman, Texas. Yeah, great. You have this groundbreaking for a factory. Yeah. Here's what I want to know. What is the difference between the AI people are dealing with now versus the AI that's coming in the future that you're seeing this factory is going to make possible?
It'll be smarter, safer, a better guardrail. Um, they'll be grounded on more truth. Uh, it'll be able to um, do more things. Be more helpful.
When you say grounded in more truth, yeah. What's that mean?
Uh, less less guessing and more research. Less guessing and more research. Just as even even this year's AI has done a much better job being grounded in truth because it can even use the internet, do some search, it brings back some information, two or three different versions of the information. It might evaluate the information based on what it, you know, based on the evaluator to see which one is more likely to be truthful. Yeah.
And do you see AI as really driving the manufacturing revival in the US?
No question about it. This is We're reinventing the computer for the first time in 63 years. This is just an extraordinary thing. Since the invention of the IBM System 360 in 1964, we're now reinventing the computer. You no longer have to code and no no longer record information in advance, pre-recording information. It's It's able to now solve problems in real time. And and so the way that the computer has to be built is radically different. We now built about 60 years with the computer infrastructure, the internet and you know, all the computers that we know. We're now in the process of reinventing all of them, which is the reason why over the course of the next 10 years, we're we're going to be, you know, building tens of trillions of dollars of new computers to replace the old computers that we built over the last 60 years.
And that's the way we compete. this.
That's the way we compete. this. That's the result. We can use this incredible new investment to re-industrialize the United States, which is the reason why we are building new chip plants. This is a new chip plant that produces lasers that allows us to take a chip that process electricity, convert it to optics or light, send it light, send the light down optics, convert it back to electricity for another chip. So, now we can connect chips that are literally separated by hundreds, thousands of feet, and let those chip two chips be connected and work together. Incredible.
All right. Energy, chips, infrastructure, models, applications.
Yeah. Five layers.
Five layers of AI.
Yeah.
Where is the US strong and where is it not?
Oh, excellent. Um Yeah, I I really appreciate that. First of all, people think that AI is this model, and it is. That's one of the very important parts of AI. Just as the computer the computer industry is not just Excel or Word, just the application, um it's consists of all of the infrastructure that supports it. Uh the five layer cake that you mentioned. The United States is woefully behind in energy production, which is one of the the great things that President Trump has really advocated uh to re- re- uh uh um regrow, I guess, to generate um the the energy industry and to be a pro-energy growth industry again. Because without energy, that entire infrastructure on top cannot be cre- created and produced. And so, the first thing is to to make sure that we are a pro-energy growth country again. Um for chips, infrastructure, and AI models, uh we are absolutely world-class. And then the layer above, uh the applications. This is Applications is used for radiology, for health care, uh applications for manufacturing, robotic systems, um all of the different applications for the various industries. The top layer the bottom layer and the top layer, uh, I would argue that we are probably not world class. Now, the reason for that is because uh, on the lowest layer we just suffocated energy production for too long. Uh, at the highest level we have to be careful because we're increasingly um, describing AI in a way that causes, uh, uh, communities and and and population uh, to be somewhat concerned about it. I think that one, the technology is very powerful so we have to build it with safety and security and uh, we have to build it with uh, with responsibility. We have to make sure that the regulations support it. But after that, you know, once we do that, we need to make sure that the United States takes advantage of this new industrial revolution just as we took advantage of the last industrial revolution. You know, as you know, 300 years ago, uh, the production of energy was invented in Europe. But somehow the United States took advantage of it. We had industrialized it. We applied it. Um, you know, com- companies like GE and all the appliances and and we celebrated the industrialization uh, of our economy. Uh, with uh, the internet we did the same thing. Uh, with the computers we did the same thing. We have to be very careful that artificial intelligence is new next generation of technology revolution that we're also enthusiastic about that adopting and make sure that we don't get left behind.
Do you think the issue with AI, you know, is the technology itself that concerns people or the absence of social structures to adapt to something happening so fast?
It's a combination of all that. Uh, when uh, automobiles came we needed to create uh, new social norms. Uh, back in the old days you probably remember it that
I'm not that old.
Okay. Well, back in the old days uh, people said that cars killed children. Uh, what is it about cars that would hunt down a child to kill them? Well, the reason for that was because in the older when when kids were growing up, they used to play in the streets. Uh when I was growing up, I used to play in streets. Um when cars came along, uh you obviously can't play in the streets. We now no longer have kids playing in the streets. We don't tell kids not to go play in the streets. And we have we have sidewalks, we have crosswalks, we have Remember jaywalking is discouraged. And so all of that combination of social norms, uh regulations, safer cars, seat belts, and all the technology that comes along with it. It's It's all of it at the same time. So, I think you have to go You have to deal with regulation, technology, you have to deal with social norms.
What is the social norm that you think would make people feel most comfortable?
Um well, the first thing is that that I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it. There's a free tier of AI. Um AI has has is the is the greatest technology um has has closed the technology divide more so than any technology in history. The reason for that is because it's accessible, it's on the internet, and it's also free to use. There's a free tier. And it's easy to use. You know, unlike a microwave, you have to read the manual. Unlike a computer, you have to learn You have to go to school learn how to program it. With AI, you don't know how to use AI, just walk up to AI and say, "You know, I don't know how to use AI. How do I use AI?" And the AI is going to say, "What would you like to do?" Uh it could be that you would like to write a write a program, create a website for your for your shop. Uh maybe you'd like to create a a small program to help you manage your your books. Uh maybe you'd like to do some research to learn something about a new topic, help you with with a new new uh new new school project that you're having a hard time with. Uh so, what whatever it happens to be, uh if you have a hard time using AI, just go up and ask it. Uh if you're a carpenter, you want to become a designer, uh help somebody be a creator of of of kitchens before you go and help somebody build it. AI could help you generate a lot of interesting designs and so, I think it could elevate your capability what I advocate for you to do just go try it before you judge.
So
[clears throat]
in the past few days we've seen some major challenges in AI, right? We saw the government put export controls on them from What do you make of that? Are export controls a good tool to use to have models being pulled back?
Well, the US government has to be concerned about national security and that's a national security is a foremost top issue. Um an export control is a powerful tool uh that that if used uh precisely and and uh specifically uh could be quite quite effective. Beyond that beyond that just got to be careful not to over exercise export control so that it doesn't create unintended consequences to a lot of other things that that we don't intend to do. And so aside from that I I'm not exactly sure I'm not in the in the conversation but you know you can emotionally in the United States is quite concerned about national security.
And and do you see national security as a major concern?
National security should always be at the top concern of all technologies. But having said that you know you have to be very specific about the risk that that you're concerned about before before setting policies for export controls.
And what about this idea that's been floated about government's owning a stake in AI companies? They make ownerships or something to that extent. Do you think that government ownership of the AI modeling companies is a good idea for the technology?
Um I'm not exactly sure what they're trying to achieve. I haven't had a dialogue with them about that. But just remember that these are American companies. Uh their success um benefits the stock price of which many Americans are are investors in. It generates taxes of which helps many Americans. It creates a lot of jobs. And the AI companies is just one of the five layers. And so if they're successful imagine all of the five layers and the jobs that are created across the board. And so I think that America has a stake in all American companies. When we succeed we create a whole bunch of jobs we generate a whole bunch of tax revenues. When we export around the world we obviously you know bring back an enormous amount of revenues create a lot of jobs locally and so on and so forth. And so so I think America has has a stake Americans have a stake in American companies already naturally in a whole lot of ways. I'm not exactly sure what they're trying to achieve beyond that.
So President Trump likes you right? Let's just cut to the chase. He's called you amazing smart he's called you a friend. But he's also said before he first met you he was thinking that Nvidia was so dominant that he should I'm curious how did you prepare for your first meeting with him in January 2025? And what did you say to him that made him go aha?
Uh Let's see what happened. I was I happened to be in Florida to receive the Edison Award. And and he heard that I happened to be in Florida invited me over for dinner. And um
Uh in in Mar-a-Lago?
Yeah that's literally how it happened. He just happened to hear that I was in town. He says drop by for dinner. And and so I did. Lori and I dropped by for dinner. He was he was a incredibly engaging incredibly charismatic um conversational asked a lot of questions. Uh From the moment that I met him the only thing that he's ever talked to me about was creating more jobs re-industrializing the United States protecting national security um winning uh he wants he wants America to be wealthy. Uh he knows that if America's wealthy, we have a lot of tax revenues, we can fund the military, we can fund our economy, we can fund our our communities, uh create more jobs. Literally that entire conversation I just went through is just every single time is some version of that. And and um uh he's as far as I could tell, all he does is work, right? He calls calls me in the middle of the night and uh wants to talk about one of these topics.
And like is it literally that he sees the country as dependent on individual's success? What does he say to
What does he do say to that? That he know?
Uh no, he uh he he wants all American companies to succeed and he's helped a whole lot of companies. And um uh he was delighted that we invested in Intel. He's delighted that we're investing in Coherent. Um he's uh incredibly happy that we um uh our manufacturing in the United States. We're going to spend about half a trillion dollars uh building in America. And the chip plant in TSMC's chip chip plant in Arizona, uh Wistron, Foxconn, and the the number of companies that we've inspired from Taiwan to to partner with us to build factories here. He's incredibly happy about that. And he knows that none of that's possible if the companies aren't growing. And so the the the thing that he understands very clearly is when a company is successful, when a market is successful, the industry is successful, you can use that momentum to fund the reindustrialization and create more jobs here in the United States. And he sees that opportunity very clearly. The thing that that that is completely transformational in in my conversations with him recognizing early on two things. One, uh he is obsessed about making sure that we reindustrialize the United States. Uh it brings back manufacturing jobs. We want makers and builders here in America again, not just information workers, but he wants builders and makers. He His views on energy is strong. We can't grow a new economy. We can't grow our industry without energy. You know, it takes fun- It fundamentally takes energy to grow. And he understands that we've been woefully behind. And so he's impatient about making sure we have more energy so that we can create all these plants and all these jobs. And so So, I I think I think he is he was so so clear and so determined on those topics, on those those areas. And it connects with the work that I do here at the end of the work that we do with Coherent and really clearly. And so we've been able to fully align on those agendas.
Now, there is also a delicate aspect of that relationship. You probably saw what Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said. She wanted you to testify before her committee, and then said you can go to Mar-a-Lago, but not before my committee. And I'm curious, does the fact that Trump likes you create any risks with Democrats who might have the majority in the House and Senate in 2027? How do you balance that?
Uh very simply. Uh President Trump is our president. He's my president. And I believe that every American should want our president to succeed. We could differ with politics, but we should want him to succeed. Because when President Trump succeeds, our country succeeds. Whoever's the next president, whoever, whatever their political party, I will want that president to succeed. And so I want I want Elizabeth Senator Warren to succeed. I want all of our senators succeed. I want United States to succeed. And so so if I could be helpful in any way to help President Trump help realize his agenda so that our country succeeds. This is I'm Paul Ford.
I'm curious for how you think about the opportunity in China. China has boxed out a lot of foreign competitors. What gives you confidence that China would be willing to accept a US-made AI ecosystem?
Well, we were in China for 30 years. And um before before the export control ban Nvidia out of China, we had about 95% market share. And so we were competing just fine. American companies, American technology companies are incredible. I travel the world and I can tell you that that we as Americans can be very proud of the technology companies that that were you know that that I'm part of. The capabilities of this country are extraordinary. And and we have every reason to be proud and we have every reason to be confident. We've been competing in China for a long time and we're doing just fine. Now there's only Now of course whatever the decisions were that that banned us from shipping to to China that decision was made and so so be it. However President Trump would like us to take our last generation products and continue to to compete around the world. And the reason for that is this. It is a false choice to have um uh We can have national security that is absolutely foremost. We want our technology industry to succeed around the world. And in order to do that, you have to compete. Um you can have national security, you have technology leadership, and you can could have economic prosperity all at the same time. Our country has been doing that for a long time. And so it is important that we recognize that China is a very large market and if we seed that market, the the competitors there will just become giants. And ultimately, that leadership, that capability there is going to scale outside of China that we'll have to deal with later. And so, I think that that the the recognition that we have to have number one, make sure that we have national security and that we protect our nation, but we also simultaneously should go and compete and grow our technology industry and maximize our exports or try to maximize exports. We're trying to trying to improve our trade imbalance. And so, it it makes sense that we continue to export, continue to compete around the world, and to protect our national security, protect our technology leadership, and grow our economic prosperity. We could do all of that at the same time.
Now, one of the things we've also seen since the start of the year is the US is getting more goods imports from Taiwan than it is directly from China. That's a change that you've helped spark. What role does that mean Taiwan has in relations with the US going forward? Is that is that stitching even tighter now?
Well, Taiwan Taiwan is is the epicenter of the world's technology ecosystem. They they Taiwan makes the world's best chips. They make the most of it. The ecosystem around them including all of the necessary parts of the supply chain is all fully integrated on the island. Um It is the case that Taiwan also is an incredible strategic partner for the United States. If not for Taiwan's company and Taiwan's support to stand up manufacturing here in the United States, we wouldn't have all the fabs in Arizona, we wouldn't have the factories from Foxconn, we wouldn't have the fabs or the factories from Wistron. All Both factories and plants are necessary. They're bringing their skills, they're bringing their labor, they're bringing their experts to help us stand up manufacturing here in the United States. So, that they're on the one hand an epicenter and a critical part of our supply chain. On the other hand, they're also a strategic partner to help us diversify and create more resilience of our supply chain. And so, Taiwan plays a both parts in it, a really important part of it.
And do you see that as intensifying and more as this gets built out?
Well, surely the onshore manufacturing is intensifying. What manufacture just a number of fabs that are being created here in the last couple two, three years, I think we've created some 600,000 jobs in the area. And most of those jobs are of course in manufacturing plants and they're in electricians, and construction workers, and designers, and and technicians, and so on and so forth. And um uh I think that that's going to continue to intensify over the next decade. Uh we're going to because I think I think we are seeing the renaissance of manufacturing here in the United States and it's going to be a renaissance in manufacturing of some of the highest-end labor jobs. And so, I I'm quite excited about that.
It does seem when I look at your history that not everyone has your same appetite for this. And I'm curious about that because so many people come to me with this moment, right? And you know this because you get asked about it constantly. But like my Uber driver said like, "I think I should just have gone back to the farm." What would you say to people who are really concerned, that might get a chance to kind of like don't get a chance to engage with you and yet are truly worried because they see risks and don't have an appetite for it.
I think the first thing I would do is I would engage a young I would just open up ChatGPT. So, the first thing I would do I would just I would open up ChatGPT and go go learn uh what it is that this technology can do for them. However, uh with respect to the Uber driver, yeah, I just think it's incredible. That example is perfect. The Uber driver's job Uber was created out of the last industrial revolution, mobile cloud, the internet. The technologies that were created in the last 20, 30 years enabled Uber to exist. [snorts] Without the internet, mobile, all of the data centers that were created to deal with all the um automatic routing and all the recommendation systems, it's incredibly complicated computer science behind Uber. None of that would have been possible if Right? Uber's that Uber driver wouldn't be possible without all of that. And so, what I would tell that Uber driver is just take a moment and observe your current condition and and the opportunities that it's created. Well, this next one's just going to create new opportunity. You're not exactly sure what it is yet, but it's going to be new opportunities. And so, I think that if you I have the benefit of watching, you know, I I'm not young and and I've been in I'm the longest-running tech CEO in the world. I've been doing my job for a long time. I've been in technology since I was 20 years old. And so, I have the benefit of watching our industry grow and society grow and jobs changing over the years um technology tools that are created and new industries created and all these new startups created. I have the benefit of watching all of this happening in slow motion. I think you we're going to see the same thing. You know, I I think that that um every single time that there was a new technology, when the personal computer came out, when the internet came out, when the iPhone came out, you know, all every single time these things happened, we all worried that we, you know, it's going to leave us behind, but somehow it doesn't. Um it does change. And you know, why wouldn't we want change? We should embrace change. I I like society today better than the society you were having which you were just talking about in the movie that that we were just both of us enjoyed just now.
Yeah, the movie is Kingdom of Heaven.
It's my favorite my favorite movie and I like Society today. We were just and so
Lastly, what do people get wrong about you? Right? They see you out, they know a lot about your eating habits, your fashion sense. What do they get wrong about you?
Uh what do they get wrong about me? Um I I I I am deeply boring. That's that's really really boring to me. I worry about my family. I care about my family. I worry about my job. I care about my my company. And then I cycle between those two things. I'm doing one of those two things at all times. Uh if I have the benefit of spending time with my family to watch Kingdom of Heaven, nothing gives me more joy. And recently we we just we've watched it three or four times. Project Hail Mary. I think we we might watch it again this weekend. And what an incredible incredible movie. So optimistic. Um so inspiring. Nothing gives me more joy than hanging out with my family and that's all I do. Between those two things, that's all I do.
Awesome. Jensen, thank you.
Great. Thank you.
[applause and music]
Welcome everybody. Welcome. Thank you so much for being with us here today. We've been We've been so excited about this event. We've been planning this event for a long time. We're so proud of this site and all of our employees here. So thank you for spending the afternoon with us here in Sherman. We really appreciate it. Um before we begin, I just want to take the opportunity to recognize and thank some of the leaders and the partners that helped make today possible. First of all, Secretary Lutnick, Bill Fronhofer and the US Department of Commerce for their support and leadership through the CHIPS program. Thank you very much.
[applause]
Thank you. Thank you. Of course, Jensen Huang and our friends at Nvidia. Thank you so much for the partnership. Many of you are here today. Thank you. Thank you.
[applause]
Uh Governor Abbott, Adriana Cruz, and the great state of Texas. Thank you. Thank [applause] you. I also want to thank uh Mayor Teague. Uh the Sherman Economic Development Corporation and other members of the Sherman community that are joining us here today. Thank you for your support. That's been critical. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. [applause] Thank you. And one last thank you. I have to thank my Coherent employees. The employees, our customers, our suppliers, our partners. Their dedication is outstanding. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right.
[applause]
All right. So, today's announcement is a result of I think a really powerful partnership between industry, government, and the local community. Uh together, these investments that we're making, including Nvidia's uh strategic partnership and investment in Coherent, support from the state of Texas and SEDCO, and today's announcement earlier this morning of the $50 million CHIPS award, all of these investments are strengthening America's ability to build critical AI infrastructure, expand domestic manufacturing capacity, and create jobs. And overall, reinforce US technology leadership. I think today marks uh a really important milestone, not just for Coherent, but for American manufacturing. And for the future of AI infrastructure. I think we're actually at a at a remarkable moment in both technology and economic history. Artificial intelligence is transforming industries. It's transforming economies and societies at an unprecedented pace. But AI leadership will depend on more than just breakthrough computing. It will require infrastructure that connects, powers, and scales those systems. That's why today's announcement is more than just about expanding a manufacturing facility. It's about strengthening America's ability to build the critical technologies that make AI possible. Together, these investments reflect a shared belief that the future of AI should be built with resilient supply chains, advanced manufacturing, and the world-class talent that's here in the United States. And there is no better place in the entire world to demonstrate this vision than here in Sherman, Texas. Absolutely. Thank you.
[applause]
We are so proud of this facility because this facility is the world's first, absolutely the world's first, and the largest volume production of 6-in indium phosphide manufacturing. And that is critical for AI data center, and it serves as one of the leading centers for optical networking innovation here in Sherman. As AI systems grow larger and more powerful, connectivity is just as important as the computing itself. AI runs on compute, but it scales with connectivity. And Sherman is where that connectivity is getting built. So, to discuss what comes next, I'm very honored uh to be joined by one of the leaders uh that's helping shape not just the future of AI, but the future of next-generation data center infrastructure. Uh please join me in welcoming Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. Jensen.
[music and applause]
Mr. Mr. Anderson. Here we are in Sherman, Texas. 18
Beautiful Sherman, Texas.
Founded 18
this site.
Founded 1846. Did you know that?
I learned it just now, I guess.
General General Sidney Sherman. [laughter] Yeah.
Well, thank you. Thank you for for joining us here today. Like we've had
Silicon Prairie, I understand.
Yeah, it is. It is. Now the photonic prairie.
[laughter]
So we've had a long partnership. Uh I think it's NVIDIA's been a partner with Coherent um and a customer of ours for over two decades. And we expanded that partnership just recently. But um Jensen, I wanted to start by just talking about um kind of bigger picture, the AI opportunity in head of us. Uh one of the phrases you've used, and I really like this description of of AI is a new industrial revolution. So when you look at where we are today, how do you think AI is going to reshape industries, economies in the years to come?
Yeah, I think the the um uh it's important to recognize that the tip of the iceberg for AI today is the AI model. And we see it in the browser, we see it with ChatGPT. It's incredible, does incredible things. And I use it every day. And uh that's how I realized that Sherman Texas was founded in
[laughter]
There you go.
1846 and
[laughter]
population almost 50,000.
A beautiful lake close by.
That's right.
Wonderful quality of life. And so you you you learn about these things. Um
[clears throat]
but but uh AI AI is an industrial revolution because in order for AI to be realized, uh you have to start with the energy sector, um the chips, the infrastructure, which is which is land power shell, the cloud services. And then there's the AI models. and even the AI models, there's AI models for languages, there are AI physical AI models for self-driving cars and robotics, there's AI models for biology and chemistry and for drug discovery, there's there's AI models for physics so that we can do climate and weather simulation and prediction. And so there's AI models of all kinds.
Yeah.
And then on top of that is the applications, the the the highest layer, which is the most important part because it's about the application of the technology that you and I are working on inventing. And so so the the applications of the technology affects uh financial services and health care and education and transportation and chip design and so on and so forth, right? You name it, every single industry, $100 trillion industry. And because because intelligence is fundamental, the ability to process information, to reason and problem-solve, uh which is the the foundations of intelligence, uh affects every single industry, this is the the ultimate general-purpose technology. And so not only are we creating a new industry, this five-layer cake that I just described, this technology is also going to revolutionize every single industry. Which is the reason why this is so exciting. And it's something that we have to do very very thoughtfully, very carefully, responsibly, um but we also want to do it with enthusiasm because bringing productivity to all of those industries, you name it, uh whether it's in health care, who doesn't want to end uh suffering, pain and suffering. Uh in in transportation, who doesn't want to make transportation safer. In the case of manufacturing, who doesn't want um us to be able to augment uh the the uh shortage of labor that we have so that all of the companies uh can continue to grow.
Yeah.
Uh in energy, why why wouldn't we want to take advantage of the opportunity, a once-in-a-generation opportunity, to use market forces to upgrade the the the energy grid to be able to support and invest in sustainable energy without government subsidies for the very first time.
Yeah.
You know, since the beginning of sustainable energy. You You name it. If you If you would like to build a solar solar plant today, no problem. If you would like to build a nuclear plant today, no problem. All completely market-driven.
Yeah.
And so you give your favorite example of energy and then there will be a a somebody who will be more than happy to fund it. And And so So I think that across the board we're seeing this extraordinary opportunity because of the market forces and the market demand for this technology. Now, what it means for the United States in the near term and we're we're at the epicenter of that right here. A perfect example of it. This is the first time in our careers where the number of chip chip fabs here in the United States is going to grow extraordinarily.
yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
And so since we started our careers, the number of chip fabs have been largely declining except for now. We're building chip flat chip half fabs, packaging plants, computer plants, manufacturing plants, and as well as of course they identify centers. And just energy generation plants everywhere across across the United States. We've already in the last several years created some 600,000 jobs. And we're going to create a whole bunch of jobs here and and uh these jobs are manufacturing jobs and which our country really desperately needs. We need to bring back the builders, the makers, um people who like who want to want to create uh this industrial uh uh sector for United States. Uh it's wonderful for our economy. It's going to be wonderful for our communities and and so I I think this is um I'm kind of enthusiastic about it.
Oh, that's a great vision.
Yeah.
So let's let's dig a little bit deeper into what is it going to take, right? Because it's not just computing power, it's not just computing capacity. There's a lot of other other infrastructure that needs to get built. The energy grid you mentioned. Um it's not just the compute but the connectivity between that compute. So maybe we could talk a little bit about the connectivity.
Well, the thing that we build everybody knows what a computer is. You know, you all carry one on your phone and you also carry one in your laptop. But imagine imagine millions of these things connected together working as one. And and to it's the ultimate it's called distributed computing. It's the ultimate distributed computing problem. And you take a very very large computing problem and you we call it sharding. You distribute it. You cut it up into chunks and you shard it across this incredible computer. We call it an AI factory. And this it's the largest software program the world's ever processed. It is the most computing intensive software program the world's ever ever processed and you're trying to run it as fast as you can. You know, you could you're you're prompting you're prompting an an AI and it's got to go off and first of all understand what you just what you just asked it. It might have to go back and do some research, read a whole bunch of documents and maybe those documents are a whole bunch of PDFs of drug discovery research or you know, various various disease research. It's got to whole read a whole bunch of PDFs and PDFs are not easy to read. And so it's got to go off and read that. It might decide to go chase down some of the references and go you know, do some research and then now it becomes an expert in that one topic. And then now now now it's grounded in the truth. It can go reason about how to solve the problem, how to do the research or how to answer the question that you gave it. And so it's got to reason about that. It might decide to use tools that are in in the laboratory and that that tool could be a robot that's manipulating and and it's doing all kinds of different experiments across different proteins and different chemicals and and that robot has to do certain things and it comes back with measurements that comes back to the computer. And so, I just described an autonomous lab that will be the future of drug discovery. And And um that AI has to think as fast as possible. And those that processing is done on these giant computers. Well, the chips are the silicon wafers. However, in order for us to connect hundreds of thousands or millions of these processors together, the separation is not in number of feet, the separation is hundreds of feet. Maybe it's a thousands of feet. And maybe it's even across an entire data center. And so, we work trying to connect all these processors together to work as one. Well, the way that you solve that problem I in close by close proxi- proximity, you can use electricity, um electrical circuits. However, if you want to connect it far away, the only way to solve that problem is silicon photonics or optical. And so, we we take electricity uh we uh we uh uh activate one of your uh indium phosphide lasers and uh
Built here in Sherman.
Built right here.
[laughter]
The world's world's most advanced indium phosphide fab, ladies [laughter] and gentlemen. And uh 6-in wafers.
That's right.
Thank you.
[applause]
And so, you apply a little electricity to this to this this this laser diode and miracle happens, right?
Yeah.
And light comes out the other end. That goes down a whole bunch of optics, travels as far as you need it to travel. On the other On the other side of it, you pick up the photons.
Yeah, detectors and you convert that back to electricity. And that electricity then drives our chips. Now, the two chips or millions of chips are now commu- communicating with each other. And so, the the interconnect that that is optical, it's pretty fun- fundamental to our ability to scale out to the sizes of computers that we like to do.
And becomes a uh more important part of the architecture moving forward, right?
So important.
So, we we announced a partnership between NVIDIA and Coherent back in March. We're very grateful for that partnership. That partnership here in Sherman, that means we're going to double the size of the production facility, but we're actually going to quadruple the output of this facility. So, how how does a partnership like this
Yeah.
um how does that factor into your thinking moving forward on the criticality of manufacturing, maybe US manufacturing? Um how do you think about that moving forward?
Well, we're going to re-industrialize the United States. Um but we like to industrialize the United States in the in the area of manufacturing that's the most advanced.
Yeah.
Has the the highest skilled labors, um has the highest paying jobs, um produces the greatest value. I mean, this is the perfect example of that.
Yeah.
And so so the type of products that we're creating here is the most advanced in the world. And we had to we had to obviously take advantage of the fact I mean, if you think just think about it for a second. Uh Coherent Coherent was started in the 1970s.
Yeah, 71.
71. And so so that that's another way of saying you've been around a long time.
Oh, yeah.
[laughter]
We have.
And uh
And and we were founded as a manufacturing company in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania. So, we've always
building lasers.
Yeah, well, yeah. So, we've always been a manufacturing company.
Yeah, so after all these years, you've gotten good at it. And so
[laughter]
Thank you. It only took us 50 years.
What's that?
It only took us 50 years.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
It's hard.
Yeah.
It's hard. And because it is. And so so after 50 years, you're world-class at it. And and here here's the amazing thing. After 50 years the most advanced Indian phosphide fab 6-in fab in the world is right here. And we're going to in 1 year's time quadruple it. That tells you something. It took 50 years to build that 1X. It's going to take us 1 year to build a 4X. Are you guys the scale up is in incredible. That tells you about the the incredible demand that that we have for accelerated computing for the computing that we're doing. And it gives us the capacity. If not for the fact that there's such a large market, if not for the fact that the American companies are doing so well, if not for the fact that we have revenues and the growth, how would we be able to support the investments that we're trying to make right here?
Yeah.
And so so I think that that President Trump's initiatives on pro energy without energy, how can we build fabs? How can we build plants? Without energy, how could there be economic growth? If not for the prosperity of the companies and doing so well around the world, exporting around the world so that we can bring back tax revenue, so that we can bring back revenues how could we invest in manufacturing here locally?
Yeah.
And so how can we create jobs? And so that flywheel is really important to to sustain. And and I think that um it's really great that that you acknowledge the the the support of Senator Secretary Lutnick and and President Trump. I think it's really terrific.
So Sherman you know is a great example of not just expanding US manufacturing capacity but job creation. This site when we get to full capacity it'll it'll support over 1,000 jobs both direct and indirect. It'll support over 550 direct jobs. Actually as you drove in you might have seen that there's a big we're hiring sign.
Yeah.
Big coin. So anybody out there that needs a job there's applications right in the back there. Please sign in.
applied personally.
[laughter]
The quality of life here
It is a great place to live.
[laughter]
That's what I read.
But is this is a site like Sherman and what we're doing here in Sherman, is this an example
really family oriented. That's what it [laughter] said.
Is this
Great quality life. I saw where we were landing, I saw all kinds of
lots of lakes. Lots of boats.
Yeah, this part of Texas is beautiful.
Beautiful.
Yeah.
Um
I'm helping you recruit.
[laughter]
You are. I hope somebody's recording this because we're going to play this for new recruits. Um but is is this a proof point of kind of Yeah, you know, we're talking about re-industrialization, but like you know, a new era of industrial growth in the US, a new era of manufacturing growth driven by AI. Is this kind of a a proof point of that, a marker of the beginning of that?
You know, Jim, in the last in the last um call it a hundred years. Uh without the automotive industry what manufacturing did we really do? You know, the United States has been declining in manufacturing for some time. And the computer industry was was largely outsourced. And and um uh it became really an intellectual property job, right? Information processing job. And And over the course of the last 50 years, um our the our economy and and our communities have really changed in shape. And we really need to figure out a way to bring back manufacturing. However, how do you fundamentally bring back manufacturing for industries that have existed forever? You and I, you know, we we we're we're strategists. CEOs are strategists. And when we think about how do you enter into a new market? How do you drive prosperity? How do you drive growth? Driving growth, you can't go and compete with somebody doing something that they've been doing for 50 or 100 years. And so we need to we need to look for a a transition, a phase shift, a new a new industry that happens where all of a sudden a whole bunch of new skills, a whole bunch of new factories, a whole bunch of new, you know, companies that didn't exist before can now exist.
Yeah.
And this is the perfect time for the United States. We are going to re-industrialize the United States in precisely the type of plants that were either unnecessary or not enough in the past. And so, if you look at chip plants, the number of chip plants around the world is growing simultaneously everywhere. So, the fact that we're growing here in the United States, um on the one hand, it doesn't take away from anybody else's growth. They're more than delighted to to partner with us and support our growth here. And so, we're bringing chip plants back here, we're bringing packaging plants, and computer plants. This is the perfect time to go and invest in re-industrialization, and the type of re-industrialization we're doing is precisely the right type.
So, when we maybe kind of last uh last question, when we think forward 10 years from now, fast forward, 10 years from now we look back at this time, what do you think people will say about the investment in AI infrastructure, the investment in US manufacturing? I mean, how will we look at this 10 years from now? The beginning of the start
10 years from now you're going to be on a probably on the boat on one of those lakes
[laughter]
enjoying life, and I'll still be working.
this facility may be 10 times larger
[laughter]
10 years from now.
I'll still be working. Yeah.
[laughter]
Uh let's see. Uh 10 years from now we're going to look back and we're going
To realize a couple two three things, and and it's all the things that we've been talking about.
One, uh the the pro-energy growth agenda has enabled the United States to grow the economy again.
Um uh the second thing is I really believe that we are going to look backwards and realize that AI was what made it possible for us to invest in sustainable energy, upgrade our energy grid, um bring back and and and you know, re- re- constitute um a workforce that is essential for for a um you know, commute social harmony. You can't just have uh information workers >> Yeah. >> uh in an economy. You you also have to have builders. Uh it's not you shouldn't it shouldn't it should not be the case that the only good jobs you can have are the ones that that um you know, you get a PhD in computer science. I mean, you should you should want to you should be able to create a a great life and build a great family and and and find a really prosperous job uh if you want to do something with your hands and and build something. And so, I think we want we want we want um uh we want a society that is that is balanced with with people who are going to builders and creators and um uh inventors, you know, and artists and right? Across the entire spectrum. >> Yeah. >> And so, I think we have an opportunity uh this next 10 years to go reshape our communities, reshape reshape our society and um be much more balanced. I think we're just going to have a lot more social harmony um as a result of that. And and we might, you know, hopefully this gets recorded, we might look back 10 years and say, that conversation really kind of stirred it and um reminded us that that um this moment that allows us to re-industrialize the United States not only shaped the economy um but it also not not only shaped our our technology uh leadership and our national security, our economy, but also our communities. >> Yeah, that's great. Thank you, Jensen.
Um I want to tell one story about the last event that I was at with uh Jensen. This was about >> Nothing scares me more. >> [laughter] >> Let's see, this was this was about a month ago. You and I were at uh a small dinner. >> Uh-huh. >> Um and I was sitting at the same table as Jensen. And uh he was sitting to my left. And there was a line of people waiting to get their picture taken with Jensen. No line for me. There was nobody in my line. But uh a couple couple people came up and said, um "Can we get a picture?" And I was so happy. I thought, "God, somebody's finally wants a picture with me, right?" And they hand me the camera and they say, um "No, no, no. Can you get a picture of me with Jensen?" Right? [laughter] So, I was taking uh pictures for you. So happy to help. But hey, thanks thanks for being with us. >> That's why we're such great partners. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you, Jensen. [applause] Thank you. >> Thanks. Jim Jim is my connecting fabric. >> [laughter] >> So, that he connects me with other people. >> Whatever you need. Thank you. Well, thank >> Thank you for your partnership. Uh we're doing this because Cohere's a great company. And we're doing this because you're world-class at what you do. And we're doing this because the work that you do is vital to uh our future, vital to the future of artificial intelligence, and quite frankly, vital to uh re-industrializing of the United States. And so, I want to thank all of you for the amazing work that you you do. I know that you have to wait about 50 somewhat years for this moment, uh but it was worth it. >> All [laughter] right. >> All right. Thank you, guys. >> Thank you, Jensen. [applause] >> [applause] >> So, we're going to go outside next and break ground. Uh at the end of the facility is where we're going to be actually expanding the the facility. So, we'll do a little shovel ground-breaking. But before that, I wanted to ask you if you wouldn't mind signing this beam over here with me. This is a steel This is a steel beam that'll be used in the construction >> All right. All right. Okay. Come on, write something. Did you get [music] it? Oh, I didn't get the date. Do we say it's June 16th? All right. >> All right. Thank you. Appreciate [applause] it. >> Thank you for coming today. >> All right, I think now we're >> Now we're going to hold up the whole process. >> Yeah, we're not going to get But now we'll we'll head outside. We'll walk to the back of the facility. We'll do a little ground breaking, okay? >> Okay. All right. >> All of us. Thank you, everybody. >> Please make your way to the exit for the ground breaking ceremony. Following the ceremony, guests who have signed up for a factory tour, please return inside. >> [music] >> Okay. >> [music] >> That's like, okay. Oh, yeah.