Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveils new Rubin AI chips at GTC 2025

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang kicked off the company’s artificial intelligence developer conference on Tuesday by telling a crowd of thousands that AI is going through “an inflection point.”

At GTC 2025 — dubbed the “Super Bowl of AI” — Huang focused his keynote on the company’s advancements in AI and his predictions for how the industry will move over the next few years. Demand for GPUs from the top four cloud service providers is surging, he said, adding that he expects Nvidia’s data center infrastructure revenue to hit $1 trillion by 2028.

Huang’s highly anticipated announcement revealed more details around Nvidia’s next-generation graphics architectures: Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin -- named for the famous astronomer. Blackwell Ultra is slated for the second half of 2025, while its successor, the Rubin AI chip, is expected to launch in late 2026. Rubin Ultra will take the stage in 2027.

In a talk that lasted at over two hours, Huang outlined the “extraordinary progress" that AI has made. In 10 years, he said, AI graduated from perception and “computer vision” to generative AI, and now to agentic AI — or AI that has the ability to reason.

“AI understands the context, understands what we're asking. Understands the meaning of our request,” he said. “It now generates answers. Fundamentally changed how computing is done.”

The next wave of AI, he said, is already happening: robotics.

Robotics fueled by so-called “physical AI” can understand concepts like friction and inertia, cause and effect, and object permanence, he said.

“Each one of these phases, each one of these waves, opens up new market opportunities for all of us,” Huang said.

The key to that physical AI, and many of Huang’s other announcements, was the concept of using synthetic data generation — AI or computer-created data — for model training. AI needs digital experiences to learn from, he said, and it learns at speeds that make using humans in the training loops obsolete.

“There's only so much data and so much human demonstration we can perform,” he said. “This is the big breakthrough in the last couple of years: reinforcement learning."

Nvidia's tech, he said, can help with that type of learning for AI as it attacks or tries to engage in solving a problem, step by step.

To that end, Huang announced Isaac GR00T N1, an open-source foundation model designed to assist in developing humanoid robots. Isaac GR00T N1 would be paired with an updated Cosmos AI model to help develop simulated training data for robots.

Benjamin Lee, a professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said that the challenge in training robotics lies in data collection because training in the real world is time-consuming and expensive.

A simulated environment has long been a standard for reinforcement learning, Lee said, so researchers can test the effectiveness of their models.

“I think it’s really exciting. Providing a platform, and an open-source one, will allow more people to learn on reinforcement learning,” Lee said. “More researchers could start playing with this synthetic data — not just big players in the industry but also academic researchers.”

Huang introduced the Cosmos series of AI models, which can generate cost-efficient photo-realistic video that can then be used to train robots and other automated services, at CES earlier this year.

The open-source model, which works with the Nvidia’s Omniverse — a physics simulation tool — to create more realistic video, promises to be much cheaper than traditional forms of gathering training, such as having cars record road experiences or having people teach robots repetitive tasks.

U.S. car maker General Motors plans to integrate Nvidia technology in its new fleet of self-driving cars, Huang said. The two two companies will work together to build custom AI systems using both Omniverse and Cosmos to train AI manufacturing models.

The Nvidia head also unveiled the company’s Halos system, an AI solution built around automotive — especially autonomous driving — safety.

“We’re the first company in the world, I believe, to have every line of code safety assessed,” Huang said.

At the end of his talk, Huang an open-source physics engine for robotics simulation called Newton, which is being developed with Google DeepMind and Disney Research.

A small, boxy robot named Blue joined him on stage, popping up from a hatch in the floor. It beeped at Huang and followed his commands, standing beside him as he wrapped up his thoughts.

“The age of generalist robotics is here,” Huang said.

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

CEO Jensen Huang talks during the keynote address of Nvidia GTC Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Stephen Lam /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives away swag to attendees on stage during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Stephen Lam /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Stephen Lam /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Stephen Lam /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks on stage during a keynote at the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Stephen Lam /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

The search is on for one missing U.S. service member while another was rescued after two U.S. warplanes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the Iran war began nearly five weeks ago.

The incidents occurred just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Here is the latest:

Omar al-Waeli, head of Iraq’s Border Ports Authority, said on Saturday that the strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing killed one person and wounded five others.

Authorities did not offer further details on the strike. But trade and passenger traffic is suspended at the crossing, which is crucial for Iranian imports and Iranian pilgrims headed to Iraq’s Shiite shrines.

The Iraqi government said it was directing traders and travelers to alternative crossings.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that it has been informed by Iran about the strike near the premises of the Bushehr nuclear facility that killed a security guard and impacted a building in the complex.

“No increase in radiation levels was reported” following the strike, the IAEA said in a social media post.

Bahrain’s Defense Ministry reported the tally in a social media post on Saturday.

This brings the total number of projectiles fired at the country since the start of the war to 188 missiles and 453 drones.

Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a social media post Saturday that an airstrike near its Bushehr nuclear facility killed a security guard and damaged a support building.

It is the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.

Its pressurized-water reactor can power hundreds of thousands of homes and other businesses and industries. But it contributes only 1% to 2% of Iran’s total power needs.

Iran has been trying to expand the facility to multiple reactors. In 2019, it began a project that ultimately plans to add two additional reactors to the site, each adding another 1,000 megawatts apiece.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has discussed with Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman defensive military assistance that Italy is providing against Iranian reprisals to U.S.-Israeli attacks.

A brief statement from Meloni's office Saturday did not specify what type of assistance Italy is providing.

It also said the two discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war, the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz and “more broadly how to promote a regional framework that can break free from the current cycle of conflict.”

Meloni will continue her visit in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.

Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.

The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.

Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.

The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.

Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.

Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.

Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.

It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”

This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.

It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.

It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”

Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.

Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.

It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.

Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.

The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.

Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)