Nvidia CEO Talks Up 'Tokenomics' as New Currency for AI

Tokens are rapidly becoming the coin of the realm for a tech industry rushing to embrace AI tools and services, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at GTC.

Mar. 17, 2026 at 8:10pm

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang discussed the rise of 'tokenomics' - the use of tokens as a new currency for the AI industry - during his keynote address at the company's GTC conference. Huang said AI tokens will help drive recruitment, budgeting, and productivity, and will increasingly influence the progress and bottom line of companies as computing shifts from retrieval-based to generative AI.

Why it matters

As AI becomes integrated into more software products, the concept of 'tokenomics' - using tokens as a new form of currency and unit of account for AI-powered services and tools - is emerging as a significant trend that could reshape how the tech industry operates and monetizes its offerings.

The details

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang discussed the rise of 'tokenomics' - the use of tokens as a new currency for the AI industry - during his keynote address at the company's GTC conference in San Jose, California. Huang said AI tokens will help drive recruitment, budgeting, and productivity, and will increasingly influence the progress and bottom line of companies as computing shifts from retrieval-based to generative AI.

  • The GTC conference runs through Thursday, March 17, 2026.

The players

Jensen Huang

The CEO of Nvidia, a leading manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs) that are widely used in AI and machine learning applications.

Nvidia

An American technology company that designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market.

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What they’re saying

“Tokens are the new commodity.”

— Jensen Huang, CEO (Computerworld)

“Computing used to be retrieval-based, now it's generative.”

— Jensen Huang, CEO (Computerworld)

The takeaway

The rise of 'tokenomics' - using tokens as a new form of currency for AI-powered services and tools - highlights the growing importance of AI in the tech industry and the need for new models to recruit talent, manage budgets, and measure productivity as computing shifts towards more generative AI capabilities.