NVIDIA (NVDA) — Invest in Germany Summit 2026: Fireside chat with Chancellor Friedrich Merz & Jensen Huang (Mon Oct 20, 2026, Berlin)

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA) in conversation with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, moderated.

Editorial note:full verbatim from The Singju Post's same-day transcript of the summit fireside (published Oct 20, 2026); video timestamps preserved from the source. Speaker labels normalized to house form. Event date (Oct 20, 2026) verified against Euronews coverage ("Investment summit: German government strikes AI deal with Nvidia", 20/10/2026 20:10 GMT+2) and same-day social coverage of the fireside at the "Invest in Germany Summit" in Berlin. This is a government investment-summit fireside — a separate event from GTC Berlin 2026 (Oct 20–22; the Jensen Huang keynote of Oct 21 is captured separately as conference_2026-10-21).

Source: https://singjupost.com/transcript-merz-x-jensen-huang-ai-safety-regulation-germanys-industrial-future/

Full transcript:

Swapping Jobs and NVIDIA’s German Roots

Moderator: (00:00:03 – 00:00:07): I can see you’re already getting comfortable for our fireside chat.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:00:08 – 00:00:10): Also a bartender.

Moderator: (00:00:13 – 00:00:22): Well, Chancellor, if you could swap jobs with Jensen for just a day, what would you do first, you think?

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:00:24 – 00:00:28): Oh, that’s a great idea. To swap the jobs. Would you like to go there?

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:00:28 – 00:00:29): No.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:00:29 – 00:00:29): Well,

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:00:31 – 00:00:32): thank you.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:00:33 – 00:00:48): I give you my answer. I rather would put my leather jacket on. I would take a flight to Berlin. I would like to see the German Chancellor, and I will tell him I’m ready to invest.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:00:50 – 00:00:51): Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Moderator: (00:00:53 – 00:00:55): I think we could arrange a meeting.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:00:56 – 00:00:58): No, nobody has invested more in Germany.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:00:59 – 00:01:05): Thank you for that. We are really grateful. Thank you for doing this. And this is a great signal for our country. Yeah.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:01:06 – 00:02:00): Thank you. NVIDIA’s story and Germany’s story played a very large role. In fact, in the year 2000, NVIDIA was a consumer-oriented technology. We were only building for PC gaming. And it was a company in Germany, ELSA, that partnership led us into workstations, which led us into all of the car companies.

And today we work with the car companies from styling, design, engineering, simulation, manufacturing, all the way out to the cars. It was in 2005 that Audi brought us into the car industry inside the car, and it was 2023— was it 2023? 2020? Yeah, 2020, that Ola and I established a partnership to build autonomous vehicles. And so Germany and NVIDIA has been very close for a long time.

The Factory of the Future

Moderator: (00:02:01 – 00:02:24): Chancellor, I think I already heard that you wouldn’t like to swap jobs, so I won’t even get there asking you what you would do as a chancellor. We let you be you for now. And I suspect you can already picture things that we might not even imagine yet. So take us into an engineering office or a factory of the future. What do you see? What is this going to look like?

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:02:25 – 00:03:32): Oh, that’s interesting. In fact, the factory— every single company in the future will have 2 factories: the factory that is real and the factory that is digital. And the factory that is digital will be so real it might as well be real. If it manifests itself when you create the digital twin of your company, of your car company, that digital twin might as well be real.

And so in the future, I believe that most people here in Germany will mostly work inside a digital twin of their company. They will build digital cars. Those cars will have digital brains. The manufacturing— the factories will have digital, of course, artificial intelligence robots building inside a robotic factory, building cars that will be robotic, and everything will be completely software-driven. Everything will be completely AI-driven.

So every company will build 2 things. They will build brains and the brains that go into the products that they ship. And so

Moderator: (00:03:32 – 00:03:33): fascinating.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:03:33 – 00:03:33): Yeah, it’s going to be cool.

Bringing AI to the Mittelstand

Moderator: (00:03:34 – 00:03:53): Chancellor, of course, the ambition is to bring AI into everyday use across German industry, from large manufacturers, Mittelstand, to also smaller firms. Could you perhaps share a few concrete examples of how you and the German government are ensuring that this widespread deployment is actually taking place?

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:03:55 – 00:04:19): Sure. First of all, I would like to say that I’m really impressed what NVIDIA and German companies are already doing in this country. Ola Källenius just handed out a model from the new S-Class of Mercedes to me, promising that this car will be autonomous driving in Germany by the end of this year.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:04:19 – 00:04:21): Safest and the most autonomous.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:04:22 – 00:05:59): So this is happening in Germany. So we are in the government, we are fully committed to be one of the most advanced places in the world, not just in the European Union but in the world, to work with AI, to integrate AI into our industry.

And one of the biggest, if not the biggest, advantage we have in Germany is our so-called Mittelstand. And I’m very happy to see that we are having here tonight many small and medium-sized companies from Germany, please open your doors for AI to make use of your data. This is so decisive for the German future. This is a real secret and a real advantage for Germany to use, to make use of all the data which are already available in our companies.

And if we could combine this AI with companies like yours and our companies in Germany, the big ones but also the so-called Mittelstand, I’m really optimistic that we will be one of the leading, if not the leading country in the world in terms of spread AI for all the companies of our manufacturers, machinery, automotive industry, suppliers of automotive industry. I think this is a great opportunity and I’m excited to meet them.

Data as a National Resource and the Next Wave of Physical AI

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:05:59 – 00:08:24): Yeah, you’re absolutely right.

So first of all, the data of Germany is part of your natural resources. It belongs to the nation. The data of your— the digital experience, or otherwise known as data— the data of your country is your culture, your values, your knowledge, your experience. It’s your natural resource. It belongs to the nation.

And you’re absolutely right that you should import the technology to harvest that data and turn it into your national intelligence, but you should not export your culture, export your values, export your knowledge, export your history, and then import German intelligence back. Makes no sense. So that’s number one. And so you ought to— you have every— You’re going to, of course, use the best AI technology available in the world and AI services in the world, but you have every capability to build your own AI. So that’s number one.

The second is the next wave of AI is physical AI. This is where AI interacts with the physical world— robotics, manufacturing, cars, heavy industry. That will never be replaced by digital technology. The work that you know belongs— that knowledge belongs to you. The expertise of your domain, that belongs to you.

Artificial general intelligence will never replace domain expertise. You could be as smart of a general intelligence as you want. You will never be as smart as somebody who is very, very specialized in a particular field of electromechanical technology. It cannot be replaced. And so AI can only augment your capability. It will not replace your capability. So take advantage of the technology. It’s a new instrument.

Germany’s Place in the Global AI Race

Moderator: (00:08:29 – 00:09:11): As for some of these advantages, Jensen, we have on the one hand decades of industrial data. We have very skilled labor, if you like. We have the engineering expertise. So this certainly, as you seem to point out, speaks for a lot of advantages for Germany. You have a global perspective. However, there are other countries that also have strengths that also like to take advantage of their strengths. You talk to so many governments across the globe, to so many companies across the world. If you take this global perspective, how is Germany braced for this sort of next race in AI?

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:09:14 – 00:12:56): As you know, the last major industrial revolution was electrification. Before the one I’ll describe. Electrification resulted in really 3 geographical leaders: Germany, United States, Japan. For the last 50 years, because of the current industrial revolution, which is computing and digital technology, The United States has largely exported its heavy manufacturing, its building, its craft, really, to China. So now the world has 3 again, but it’s Germany, Japan, and China.

The advantage that China has is that they came into their industrial revolution, if you will, their economic transformation happened during precisely the time of the computer industry. They are quite computerized. China is probably the only nation today that is deep in manufacturing and deep in computer science and very comfortable in both.

Well, the good news is there’s a complete reset. The last 50 years was about software programming. United States is obviously world-class, but there’s a new era now. The computer programs itself. You just have to show the computer what you want. Computer programming, all of the advantages of the last generation, has now been accrued into artificial intelligence. There’s a complete reset.

All the digital technology in the world will not replace electromechanical physical technology. Electrons will never replace atoms. And that’s an advantage that you have. The work you know, the domain expertise you have, the craft that is here, It will remain here. But you have to take advantage of this new technology. This industrial revolution is so mighty, is so powerful. You don’t have another chance because you always— yeah. Whether we have another chance or not, we should always assume we don’t.

Transition is so important. You should combine your deep skills, your deep expertise in the physical products, in the electromechanical products, and combine it with artificial intelligence. I would not be surprised if currently most of the Mittelstands, their challenges are reduction in labor because people are getting old. The craft that is captured in the knowledge, the skills of the people are still— are starting to get older and older every generation.

Take advantage of artificial intelligence. Let them codify, let them program, let them teach this artificial intelligence and keep it here in Germany. And let it re-engineer the Chancellor’s words. Chancellor’s words, “re-engineer Germany.” This is your chance to do it.

Manufacturing, Startups and NVIDIA’s Investments in Germany

Moderator: (00:12:58 – 00:13:29): Well, I think it’s become obvious, prerequisites to scale industrial AI in Germany are here and they are very promising, and the opportunities related to it are impressive. It will be key, of course, Chancellor, to bridge the gap between innovation and implementation in factories and in value chains. Is a cooperation with NVIDIA a part of the plan to do so?

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:13:31 – 00:15:06): Yeah, sure. And this is already happening. And I would like to say that I’m extremely grateful about what we have just heard from this business leader of the world in terms of AI. So you are giving me, and hopefully us, a great optimism about our business model in Germany.

And you might know that I’m always insisting that we have to remain a country with manufacturing, and we should never give up that. And now we are seeing a great opportunity in combining our experiences with manufacturing and AI. So if we are successful in bringing these 2 aspects and parts of the business of the future together, I’m really very optimistic that Germany can be one of the most successful economies in the world because we are already— we are still the 3rd biggest economy in the world.

So thank you for telling us what the opportunity is and comparing us with others. And I believe, and I share your view, that the Americans made a big mistake to export their manufacturing. And now they are faced with a very small, successful, but very small-based industry. And this is our advantage to have this broader access and broader approach to the future of our industry.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:15:06 – 00:17:24): And look, I’m a large American company and we have incredible partnerships here in Germany for good reason. It’s good for us. Our partnership with Audi led to our partnership with Mercedes. Our partnership with Mercedes led to our investment in robotics, which led to our partnership with Agile Robots. We just made an investment in them. We made investment, Avelios, made an investment in Mirelo, made an investment in Reflex Aerospace. Last year we made investment in Black Forest Labs.

Here in Germany you have deep science and technology and deep science and math, which are the fundamentals for manufacturing, for the deep sciences, for artificial intelligence. And so there’s so much technical expertise and there’s so much deep science and deep math.

The one thing that you said also is that you believed in a policy of advancing and encouraging AI startups or startups in general. I think that’s fantastic. One of the things that I really love about the United States, of course, is that we constantly reinvigorate, we constantly reinvent ourselves. And the way we do that is through all the entrepreneurs.

And so one of the things that I really love to see, we’ve invested tremendously in Germany. In the last year, we’ve invested almost $1 billion. This week, we’re investing in 4 new companies. And so in a lot of ways, we are one of the largest VCs in Germany because I believe in Germany. And so for all of the other venture capitalists, you better hurry because otherwise I’m going to take all the good deals and I’m going to be rich.

And so the important thing is that the thing I want to recognize is that the science and technology capability of Germany is just second to none. We have 1,000 employees here. We have a fantastic office here in Berlin. Some of the fundamental inventions of our companies came from our office here in Berlin, in Germany. And so this is— you want to invest here. Incredible people.

How Should AI Be Regulated?

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:17:25 – 00:18:09): May I ask a question? Could you give us advice on regulation? We are having a very strong debate in Brussels on the European level compared to the US. What is the best way to regulate this industry or this new technology?

I think we agree on no regulation is not the right answer. Too tight regulation is not the right answer either. But what is, from your view, the right answer in terms of keeping the potential damage in mind that this could happen and it had already happened? So what is your advice on regulation? What can we do better than others?

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:18:10 – 00:18:11): Safety is paramount.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:18:12 – 00:18:12): Yeah.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:18:13 – 00:21:19): There is no future for this industry without safe products, just as there’s no future in autonomous vehicles if the vehicles are not safe. And so it is not a choice. You don’t choose between safety and capability. They are one. They have to go together.

And so 3 pillars. The first is you can’t regulate if there’s no technology. So the technology industry must invent the technology for safety, just as Ola and I had to invent the technology, and we have the safest autonomous vehicle in the car in the world. We had to invent the technology that allows you to achieve the functionality you want to see, but also the guarantee of functional safety and active safety we want to deliver. And so that requires invention of technology. That’s the first pillar. But that’s something that Germany is incredibly good at. Your science, your math, your technology is incredibly good. You have to invent the technology of safety. Safety is not hopes and dreams. Safety is technology and engineering.

Second, the companies need to have best practices. Sometimes the young companies, they’re still trying to grow up and they make maybe more mistakes than they should. We need to make sure that companies make— deliver on the best practices, best methods. And even in safety, as many of the people in the audience, there are probably many in the automotive industry, you know that safety is deep methodology, deep best practices, deep engineering. And that methodology has to be adhered to.

And then lastly, there’s industrial and government regulations. If it turns out that— and remember, AI is 2 things. Just as the internet— regulating the internet is hard, but regulating internet applications is not so hard. We should be regulating the applications right away. And so if there are AI technologies that you see that’s being applied to a new type of product that is not covered by the existing regulatory bodies, they have to evaluate as soon as possible and make sure that their regulation includes AI.

And so I would— and I think I’ve also heard you say that you want to find that balance between innovation and regulation. There’s nothing to regulate if the industry doesn’t thrive. You want the German AI industry to thrive as well as do it safely, responsibly. So I think the balance is really important to do. And so I think that the answer is we know there’s technology we can invent and deploy in order to have AI safety. We know that there are best practices that we can adhere to as companies and industries. And then in addition to that, if necessary, we’ll make sure we regulate.

Moderator: (00:21:21 – 00:21:25): Just briefly, Chancellor, what would be your answer to the same question? Maybe very briefly.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:21:26 – 00:22:18): No, thank you. This was extremely helpful because we are talking about that on the European level, we are talking that on the national level, and my approach is that we at least need the European level, and better we had a global level of regulation and of safety for this fantastic new technology. So this is my personal view, but we are still far from that because we are different, having a different approach between the Americans and the Europeans.

But we are working on that, and most in this room know that I was successful to get the AI regulation out of the normal regulation of AI in the European Union and to have a special regulation for the machinery industry in Germany and not part— being part of the general AI limitation and regulation. So this was a big achievement which we had.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:22:18 – 00:22:19): Give Germany a chance.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:22:19 – 00:22:20): Yeah, yeah.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:22:20 – 00:22:22): Give this industry a chance to— yeah.

Looking Ahead: Germany’s Startup Ecosystem

Moderator: (00:22:23 – 00:22:33): And just finally, very, very briefly, Chancellor, if Jensen came back in a year’s time, which we very much hope, what would you hope for him to see?

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:22:34 – 00:22:49): I would like to see him regularly, let’s say at least once a year, and discussing progresses we made, and seeing a guy sitting in my office and being extremely happy about the German investment place.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:22:52 – 00:23:32): Nothing would give me more joy than to see all of my investments in Germany turn into gold. Okay, so I have every belief, and I’m very, very happy to hear your personal support of the startup ecosystem. I’m very happy to hear that there are regulations involved to make it possible for the pension funds and the risk capital to come into Germany. And then I’m also super excited to hear about all of the AI startups and the startups that have happened in the last couple of years.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:23:33 – 00:23:38): Half of the startups in Germany being founded in the last 2 years is AI-oriented.

Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA): (00:23:39 – 00:23:39): Yeah, that’s terrific.

Friedrich Merz (Chancellor of Germany): (00:23:40 – 00:23:41): That’s fantastic.

Moderator: (00:23:41 – 00:24:34): Yeah, who knows, maybe you are going to ask them for some autographs next year. You might want to bring a pen when you come once they have their breakthroughs. Some of them, I understand, were your interns in the And now they run their own companies. It’s been a pleasure to have you here. Thank you to both of you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give an applause to Chancellor Merz and Jensen Huang. What an upbeat, promising start. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you may now notice a little movement, but this evening is of course far from over. Members of the press are about to leave.