NVDA Stock Eyes Best Month Since May: Jensen Huang Says AI Data Center Boom Is ‘Reindustrializing’ America

AI infrastructure is driving investment in the power grid, energy and semiconductor fabs, Huang said.

• Data centers are facing growing pushback in some U.S. communities over concerns about power and water use, taxes, and their impact on local infrastructure.
• Huang urged data-center builders to partner with communities and create tangible local benefits.
• Retail sentiment for NVDA was ‘bullish.’

Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang on Monday backed the case for a massive expansion of data centers across the U.S., saying the AI boom is helping “reindustrialize” America after decades of manufacturing moving overseas.

Huang was responding to investor Gavin Baker, who walked back the tone of his earlier criticism of data centers and argued that many concerns about their impact on water, electricity prices, taxes, jobs and local communities have eased as projects have evolved.

Nvidia stock rose 8.4% in August and is heading into its second month in the green, the best monthly move since May, aided by stellar quarterly earnings results last week. Shares were up 0.1% in overnight trading ahead of Monday.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Support Data Center Buildout

“Gavin, spot on,” Huang said in response to Baker’s post. Baker argued that data centers are now “awesome for America in every way,” pointing to the economic benefits they are bringing to communities that previously had few major development opportunities.

On water usage, Baker said newer facilities increasingly rely on closed-loop or recycled water systems and argued that some of the widely cited estimates from 18 months ago were off by more than 1,000 times.

He also highlighted the tax and employment benefits, noting that data centers can generate substantial property-tax revenue while creating demand for electricians, plumbers, and technicians and contractors.

Baker pointed to examples including Loudoun County, Virginia, where he said data centers now generate roughly $1 billion a year in taxes, and Quincy, Washington, where data-center taxes have helped fund public infrastructure including a high school, hospital and library.

Huang echoed the broader economic argument, saying AI is “bringing manufacturing back to America and reindustrializing the nation after decades of offshoring.”

The Nvidia CEO said AI is also creating demand for investment in America’s aging power grid and sustainable energy infrastructure, “powered by market forces, not subsidies.”

“AI is creating construction and manufacturing jobs across energy plants, chip fabs and data centers,” Huang said. He added that the AI boom is creating entirely new companies and industries, claiming that $400 billion has been invested in AI startups over the past six months alone.

AI Data Centers Spark Community Pushback

The exchange comes as the data-center boom is facing growing grassroots pushback, with residents and local officials increasingly citing power demand, water use, noise, pollution and pressure on local infrastructure. 

In Michigan, residents in Saline Township voted against a proposed $16 billion OpenAI-Oracle data center, though the project ultimately moved forward. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a statewide audit of data centers this month, effectively pausing new projects amid growing concerns over their impact on the power grid.  

Big Tech companies including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and OpenAI continue to argue that data centers are essential to meeting surging AI demand and bring jobs and investment, but are increasingly under pressure to address communities’ concerns.

Huang acknowledged that developers need to work with the communities hosting the infrastructure. “Builders must partner with communities to build in their hometowns, earn trust and create local benefits,” he said.

Retail View On NVDA

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for NVDA climbed sharply over the past week following upbeat and was ‘extremely bullish’ as of late Sunday. 

“$NVDA likes to run up on red days just fyi, when markets red into September NVDA is generally green. It is counter the markets on red days… just the facts,” posted a trader. Year to date, NVDA stock is up 16%.

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