Jensen Huang has achieved rockstar status in the technology world for leading his company through one of the fastest and most exciting transitions. NVIDIA, the once plucky GPU maker, has now become central to the AI buildout, and its CEO has long anticipated the transformative potential of this technology.

Signaling NVIDIA's AI pivot

Mere weeks before Google scientists released their seminal paper on AI transformer technology, Huang made this comment in an interview with MIT Technology Review almost nine years ago.

The company, popularized thanks to its consumer GPUs, was in the midst of laying the foundations for its AI-fueled ascent. It had just hosted the "world's premier AI conference" in San Jose and was exploring how its GPUs could make a significant impact in deep learning, overcoming some of the inefficiencies we had encountered with conventional processors.

This quote references the way software companies surged in relevance at the time. With increased access to computing power, the ongoing cloud revolution, and widespread use of machine learning, SaaS companies penetrated the heart of enterprises and proved truly transformative. But, as Huang forecast at the time, their reign would not be long-lived.

Does SaaSmageddon have legs?

It feels like every Anthropic press release delivers yet another body blow to the SaaS sector. SaaSmageddon – the phenomenon in which disruption in the software market is being driven by emerging AI capabilities – is now underway as agentic AI is on the rise.

Was Huang to know exactly how this would play out nine years on? It's plausible, but today's market sensitivities are also impacted by global events and other developments that were impossible to foresee at the time.

In 2026 and beyond, NVIDIA remains central to the ongoing AI buildout, with the industry clamoring for its technologies, and its hardware is flooding into data centers globally.

The software sector finds itself on its knees but far from out for the count. It remains to be seen whether these companies can adapt to the new normal, or whether AI will "eat them" as Huang suggested nearly a decade ago.

Keumars Afifi-Sabet is a freelance contributor for Tech Radar and the Technology Editor for Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital and ComputerActive. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. In his previous role, he oversaw the commissioning and publishing of long form in areas including AI, cyber security, cloud computing and digital transformation.