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Jensen Huang is a man on a mission—but not so much that he does not have time to tell a good story at his own expense. Last spring, when his semiconductor company, Nvidia, was well on its way to becoming a darling of generative artificial intelligence (AI), he and his wife bought a new home in the Bay Area. Mr Huang was so busy he could not spare much time to visit it before the purchase was completed. Pity, he admitted later, sneezing heavily. It was surrounded by plants that gave him hay fever.Mr Huang uses such self-deprecating humour often. When he took to the stage on March 18th for Nvidia’s annual developers’ conference, to be greeted by cheers, camera flashes and rock-star adulation from the 11,000 folk packed into a San Jose ice-hockey stadium, he jokingly reminded them it wasn’t a concert. Instead, he promised them a heady mix of science, algorithms, computer architecture and mathematics. Someone whooped.In advance, Nvidia’s fans on Wall Street had dubbed it the “AI Woodstock”. It wasn’t that. The attendees were mostly middle-aged men wearing lanyards and loafers, not beads and tie-dyes. Yet as a headliner, there was a bit of Jimi Hendrix about Jensen Huang. Wearing his trademark leather jacket, he put on an exhilarating performance. He was a virtuoso at making complex stuff sound easy. In front of the media, he improvised with showmanship. And for all the polished charm, there was something intoxicating about his change-the-world ambition. If anyone is pushing “gen AI” to the limits, with no misgivings, Mr Huang is. This raises a question: what constraints, if any, does he face?The aim of the conference was to offer a simple answer: none. This is the start of a new industrial revolution and, according to Mr Huang, Nvidia is first in line to build the “AI factories” of the future. Demand for Nvidia’s graphics-processing units (GPUs), AI-modellers’ favourite type of processor, is so insatiable that they are in short supply. No matter. Nvidia announced the launch later this year of a new generation of superchips, named Blackwell, that are many times more powerful than its existing GPUs, promising bigger and cleverer AIs. Thanks to AI, spending on global data centres was $250bn last year, Mr Huang says, and is growing at 20% a year. His firm intends to capture much of that growth. To make it harder for rivals to catch up, Nvidia is pricing Blackwell GPUs at $30,000-40,000 apiece, which Wall Street deems conservative.In order to reap the fruits of this “accelerated-computing”, Nvidia wants to vastly expand its customer base. Currently the big users of its GPUs are the cloud-computing giants, such as Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as builders of gen-AI models, such as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. But Nvidia sees great opportunity in demand from firms across all industries: health care, retail, manufacturing, you name it. It believes that many businesses will soon move on from toying with ChatGPT to deploying their own gen-AIs. For that, Nvidia will provide self-contained software packages that can either be acquired off the shelf or tailored to a company’s needs. It calls them NIMs, or Nvidia Inference Microservices. Crucially, they will rely on (mostly rented) Nvidia GPUs, further tying customers into the firm’s hardware-software ecosystem.So far, so star-spangled. But it is not all peace and love at Woodstock. You need only to recall the supply-chain problems of the pandemic, as well as the subsequent Sino-American chip wars, to see that dangers lurk. Nvidia’s current line-up of GPUs already faces upstream bottlenecks. South Korean makers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in Nvidia’s products cannot keep up with demand. TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, which actually churns out Nvidia chips, is struggling to make enough of the advanced packaging that binds GPUs and memory chips together. Moreover, Nvidia’s larger integrated systems contain around 600,000 components, many of which come from China. That underscores the geopolitical risks if America’s tensions with its strategic rival keep mounting. Troubles may lie downstream, too. The AI chips are energy-hungry and need plenty of cooling. There are growing fears of power shortages because of the strain that GPU-stuffed data centres will put on the grid. Mr Huang hopes to solve this problem by making GPUs more efficient. He says the mightiest Blackwell system, known pithily as GB200NVL72, can train a model larger than ChatGPT using about a quarter as much electrical power as the best available processors.But that is still almost 20 times more than pre-AI data-centre servers, notes Chase Lochmiller, boss of Crusoe Energy Systems, which provides low-carbon cloud services and has signed up to buy the GB200NVL72. And however energy-efficient they are, the bigger the GPUs, the better the AIs trained using them are likely to be. This will stoke demand for AIs and, by extension, for GPUs. In that way, as economists pointed out during a previous industrial revolution in the late 19th century, efficiency can raise power consumption rather than reduce it. “You can’t grow the supply of power anything like as fast as you can grow the supply of chips,” says Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research, a firm of analysts. In a sign of the times Amazon Web Services, the online retailer’s cloud division, this month bought a nuclear-powered data centre.’Scuse me while I kiss AIMr Huang is not blind to these risks, even as he dismisses the more typical concerns about gen AI—that it will destroy work or wipe out humanity. In his telling, the technology will end up boosting productivity, generating profits and creating jobs—all to the betterment of humankind. Hendrix famously believed music was the only way to change the world. For Mr Huang, it is a heady mix of science, engineering and maths. ■ More

Sotheby’s is holding its inaugural “Sports Week” with six upcoming auctions.
Sports is one of the fastest growing categories for the auction house, as demand grows for collectibles worn by the likes of Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Kobe Bryant.
The category has also helped attracted a younger collecting audience.

MJ 1996 Air Jordans.
Photo: Amanda Bass

Sotheby’s is increasing its sports offerings, as the auction house looks to capitalize on the growing demand for sports memorabilia and draw in a younger demographic.
The company on Wednesday announced its first “Sports Week,” which will include six live and online auctions with items from many of the biggest names in sports. The auctions will kick off April 4.

Demand for athletic memorabilia has jumped in recent years, and sports has become one of Sotheby’s fastest-growing categories, the auction house said.
“We’ve seen exponential growth and interest in the category,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of Streetwear & Modern Collectibles, told CNBC. “Sports Week represents another example of Sotheby’s commitment to engaging in collecting communities with creative sale formats and is presented with attractive estimates that caters to all sports fans and collectors alike, both seasoned and also those looking to kickstart their collection.”
The market for sports collectibles is massive, and only getting bigger. Consulting group Market Decipher estimated the valuation of sports memorabilia at $26.1 billion globally in 2021. The group predicts the market will explode in the coming years, reaching $227.2 billion by 2032.
The sports category saw higher demand during Covid, when the popular documentary series “The Last Dance” was released, according to Wachter. “The Last Dance,” which chronicled the story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ quest for their sixth NBA title, boosted interest in Jordan collectibles, which then translated into other sports memorabilia.
Sports has also brought a new, younger demographic into the market.

Sotheby’s said its average client for sports memorabilia are 20 to 40 years old, and 50% of them are new to auctions. Some sales lead to more purchases in the contemporary and watch categories, Wachter said.
As a result, Sotheby’s is going all in on sports. In addition to dramatically increasing its offerings, the auction house is partnering with the NBA to sell game-worn jerseys, and is in talks with a variety of other sports organizations about potential tie-ups.
Earlier this year, Sotheby’s sold The Dynasty Collection, a set of six individual Air Jordan sneakers worn by Jordan in the clinching games of his six career NBA Finals championships, for $8 million. The sale set a new global auction record for game-worn sneakers and became the second-highest price achieved for Jordan sports memorabilia. 

Thrilla in Manilla autographed shorts.
Photo: Amanda Bass

Sotheby’s Sports Week auction highlights include a pair of Muhammad Ali’s shorts from his legendary “Thrilla in Manila” match from 1975, considered one of the greatest boxing matches in history. The trunks are expected to sell for an estimated $4 million to $6 million, which would make them one of the most valuable items of Ali memorabilia to appear at auction.

Kobe Bryant’s jersey for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Photo: Amanda Bass

A Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers jersey from Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals also up for auction that week is expected to fetch an estimated $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The late star scored 40 points that game, his highest-scoring NBA Finals performance.
Sports Week will also include some classic sneakers worn by NBA greats. Sotheby’s will offer 50 pairs of sneakers donned by some of the league’s greatest players such as Jordan, Bryant, LeBron James, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
Jordan’s Air Jordan 11s from Game 5 of the 1996 NBA Finals are the headliner, expected to fetch between $200,000 and $400,000. Jordan wore the sneakers as he returned from his brief retirement to lead the Bulls to a 72-10 regular season record and then their fourth NBA title.

Detail photo of Sabrina Ionescu’s jersey.
Photo: Amanda Bass

For fans looking to get their hands on more recent memorabilia, Sotheby’s is offering several items from February’s NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis. Those include a James 2024 All-Star Jersey, expected to fetch $200,000 to 300,000, along with the jerseys Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu wore during their three-point competition. The Curry and Ionescu jerseys are expected to sell for between $30,000 to $500,000, and $8,000 to $12,000, respectively.
The entire sports collection is expected to sell for more than $12 million, with individual items ranging from $500 to about $6 million each.

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Nordstrom shares jumped following a report that the department store operator is considering going private.
A deal might not happen, according to Reuters, and a similar effort failed in 2018.
Nordstrom earlier this month gave a disappointing sales outlook for 2024.

Shoppers exit the Nordstrom at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park, California, on Aug. 14, 2023.
Christina House | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Nordstrom shares closed 9% higher on Tuesday following a report that the department store chain is attempting to go private.
The retailer’s founding family is working with Morgan Stanley and investment bank Centerview Partners to determine if private equity firms have interest in a deal, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

A deal might not happen, according to Reuters. A previous effort to take Nordstrom private fizzled out in 2018.
Nordstrom has struggled to drive sales in a competitive retail landscape where consumers squeezed by inflation have been watching their spending on apparel and other discretionary goods. Earlier this month, the company gave a gloomy sales outlook for 2024.
Nordstrom said it expects full-year revenue to range from a 2% decline to a 1% increase from 2023.
Before Tuesday’s move, the company’s shares had fallen about 7% this year.
Nordstrom did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

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JetBlue is scaling back service in Los Angeles and cutting other routes.
The carrier is charting a path after its failed acquisition of Spirit Airlines.
The airline is under increased pressure to reduce expenses and return to profitability after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a nearly 10% stake last month and won two board seats.

A JetBlue Airways plane prepares to take off from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Jan. 31, 2024.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

JetBlue Airways told staff on Tuesday that it is culling a host of routes, making it the carrier’s latest move to cut costs in the wake of a failed attempt to acquire Spirit Airlines and a Pratt & Whitney engine issue that has grounded some of its Airbus planes.
The carrier will reduce its departures from Los Angeles International Airport from about 34 a day to 24, focusing on profitable transcontinental routes that include its Mint business class cabin, according to a memo to staff, which was seen by CNBC. Cuts include service from Los Angeles to San Francisco; Seattle; Miami; Las Vegas; Reno, Nevada; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

JetBlue is also ending flights to Bogota, Colombia; Quito, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; and Kansas City, Missouri, in June, and flights between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Austin, Atlanta, Nashville and Salt Lake City as well as between New York and Detroit.
“With less aircraft time available and the need to improve our financial performance, more than ever, every route has to earn its right to stay in the network,” Dave Jehn, vice president of network planning and airline partnerships, said in the memo.
Along with transcontinental flying, JetBlue said it will focus on “bread and butter” routes along the East Coast, and those serving Caribbean vacation destinations.
CEO Joanna Geraghty is a month into the top job and is under increasing pressure to reduce expenses and return the airline to profitability after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a nearly 10% stake in the carrier last month and won two board seats.
JetBlue had already begun a cost-cutting program before Icahn’s stake and said in January that it was on track to reduce expenses by $200 million by the end of the year. The carrier trimmed some other routes earlier this year, CNBC reported.

The changes announced Tuesday don’t affect JetBlue’s planned capacity for the year, which it expects to be down in the low single digits from 2023, the memo said.
JetBlue is charting its path as a stand-alone airline after a judge blocked its plan to purchase Spirit Airlines in January. JetBlue walked away from that deal entirely earlier this month. Last year, a separate judge knocked down its partnership with American Airlines in the Northeast.

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Filmmaker and Hollywood legend George Lucas is endorsing Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger in the bitter proxy battle launched by activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Lucas is currently the largest individual investor in the company, multiple sources confirmed to CNBC.
His support is key because of his shareholder status and his standing in Hollywood.

Filmmaker and Hollywood legend George Lucas is throwing his support behind Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger in the bitter proxy battle between the company and activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Lucas, who received 37.1 million Disney shares as part of Disney’s $4.05 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, is currently the largest individual investor in the company, multiple sources confirmed to CNBC.

In a statement provided to CNBC, Lucas wrote:

“Creating magic is not for amateurs. When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago, I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my long-time admiration for its iconic brand and Bob Iger’s leadership. When Bob recently returned to the company during a difficult time, I was relieved. No one knows Disney better. I remain a significant shareholder because I have full faith and confidence in the power of Disney and Bob’s track record of driving long-term value. I have voted all of my shares for Disney’s 12 directors and urge other shareholders to do the same.”

Disney has lined up a number of high-profile endorsements in its battle against Peltz and his firm, Trian Fund Management, from the heirs of Walt and Roy Disney to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
But the support from the Lucas endorsement is key, not only because of his role as Disney’s largest individual shareholder, but also because of his standing in Hollywood. Lucas wrote and created the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, some of the most popular films in history, and he helped pioneer tools such as digital film editing and computer-generated imagery.
Peltz has asked investors to nominate him and former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo to the board at its annual general meeting on April 3. Among other things, Peltz wants to overhaul Disney’s traditional TV channels, which he thinks have been a shrinking business.
Iger, meanwhile, has been trying to streamline the sprawling media company to rein in spending and make its Disney+ streaming platform profitable. Iger has instituted broad restructuring, including thousands of layoffs. More

Bentley Motors is pushing back its plans to transition to all-electric vehicles by a couple of years amid changes in market conditions and a delay in its first EV.
CEO Adrian Hallmark said the carmaker remains committed to carbon neutrality and exclusively offering EVs, but it now plans to continue offering plug-in hybrids past 2030.
Bentley is among a growing number of automakers to change, delay or cancel ambitious EV plans as global adoption grows slower than many expected.

Bentley Continental GTC Speed in Kingfisher.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Bentley Motors is pushing back its plans to exclusively offer all-electric vehicles by the end of this decade due to changing market conditions and a delay in its first EV.
CEO Adrian Hallmark said the famed British luxury carmaker remains committed to carbon neutrality and exclusively offering EVs, but it now plans to do so a couple of years later. Bentley will continue offering plug-in hybrids alongside BEVs, or battery electric vehicles, past its previous target of 2030, Hallmark said.

“Whether we deliver all the BEVs by 2031 or not, we still may have some hybrids that we wouldn’t have had post-2030,” he said during a media briefing. “But not for 10 years, maybe just for a couple of years as we run them out.”
Bentley is among a growing number of automakers to change, delay or cancel ambitious EV plans as global adoption grows slower than many expected.
Bentley’s first EV was expected to be released next year, followed by one new all-electric model each year as part of a plan to invest $3.4 billion by 2030. The company now expects its first EV to be released in 2026, pushing back the release of the subsequent vehicles as well.

Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The delay in Bentley’s first all-electric vehicle was the result of software issues as well as difficulty with developing the vehicle’s architecture to Bentley’s standards, according to Hallmark. He said those challenges were the primary driver behind delaying its EV plans, rather than the changing market conditions.
Hallmark said Bentley will increase its investment in plug-in hybrids by hundreds of millions of dollars in the years to come. He said given the increase in investment, the company needs to “run them a bit longer” to achieve a desired return on investment.

Bentley currently offers plug-in hybrid versions of its Bentayga SUV for $203,200 and its Flying Spur sedan for $221,200. Both include engines as well as EV components and electric range.
Bentley still plans to end production of traditional internal combustion engines, including its famed V-12 engines next month and nonhybrid V-8s by July or August.

A staff member checks a Bentayga SUV on the Bentley production line at its factory in Crewe, England, on Dec. 7, 2022.
Phil Noble | Reuters

The update to Bentley’s EV plans was announced alongside the Volkswagen-owned company’s 2023 financial results.
Those results include deliveries of 13,560 vehicles globally, down 11% from a record of nearly 15,200 vehicles in 2022. Revenue was $3.21 billion, down 13% compared to the previous year, with an operating profit of $644.7 million, down 17%.
Hallmark called 2023 a great year for the company but also “a year of massive swings in performance across the overall luxury” market that affected business. He cited challenges including changing sales dynamics in China as well as macroeconomic concerns and higher interest rates for its 30% of buyers who lease their vehicles.
Bentley’s 2023 performance significantly outperformed 2021, when it sold more vehicles but at a lesser profit. Hallmark said the increase in revenue and profits compared to two years ago is a direct result of customers opting for more customization and add-ons to their vehicles.

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Volkswagen workers at a plant in Tennessee have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the United Auto Workers.
The filing comes after a “supermajority of Volkswagen workers have signed union cards in just 100 days,” the union said.
 In 2019, VW workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote. 

A Volkswagen EV ID.4 crossover at the Volkswagen of America plant in Chattanooga, Tenneessee, on June 8, 2022.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT — Volkswagen workers at a plant in Tennessee have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the United Auto Workers, the union announced Monday.
The filing comes after a “supermajority of Volkswagen workers have signed union cards in just 100 days,” the union said, marking a major milestone in the labor group’s organizing drives of nonunionized auto plants in the U.S.

The UAW has previously failed to organize foreign-based automakers in the U.S. Most recently, plants with Volkswagen and Nissan fell short of the support needed to unionize. In 2019, VW workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote. 
The Chattanooga plant is VW’s only U.S. assembly plant and employs more than 4,000 autoworkers who would be eligible to vote for union representation.

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VW confirmed receiving a notice that the UAW has filed a petition with the NLRB to hold an election. The company said it respects its workers’ right to a democratic process and to organize.
“We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision. The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our working environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the area,” the company said in an emailed statement.
VW production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 per hour and $32.40 per hour, with a four-year grow-in period to top wages, according to the company.

VW’s hourly wages are lower than those the UAW negotiated last year with the Detroit automakers, which this year range between about $25 an hour and $36 an hour for production workers, including estimated cost-of-living adjustments, or COLA. By the end of the UAW contracts, top wages are expected to surpass $42 an hour for production workers.
VW is one of 13 nonunion automakers in the U.S. that the UAW set its sights on late last year after securing record contracts with the Detroit automakers.
The drive covers nearly 150,000 autoworkers across BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

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Audi on Monday revealed its new all-electric Q6 e-tron SUV, the first production vehicle on its next-generation EV architecture.
Ordering for the Q6 e-tron quattro and a performance variant will open this month in Europe.
Audi plans to introduce about 20 new or significantly redesigned models and derivatives globally through 2025, more than half of which will be electric.

The Audi SQ6 e-tron SUV.

Audi on Monday revealed its new all-electric Q6 e-tron SUV, the first production vehicle on its next-generation electric vehicle architecture.
The Volkswagen-owned luxury carmaker says the new “Premium Platform Electric” opens up new levels of technology for Audi, including a rapid EV recharge time of 158 miles in 10 minutes.

The vehicle ushers in the next generation of EVs for Audi, which continues to offer more all-electric and plug-in hybrid EVs despite growth slowing recently for EVs.
Audi confirmed it plans to introduce about 20 new or significantly redesigned models and derivatives globally through 2025, more than half of which will be electric.

The Audi SQ6 e-tron SUV,

Ordering for the Q6 e-tron quattro as well as an “S” performance variant will open this month in Europe, starting at 74,400 euros or about $81,000, and 93,800 euros, or $102,030, respectively. The Q6 e-tron has an estimated range on a single charge of 625 kilometers, or 388 miles.
Top performance specifications for the U.S. include up to 510 horsepower, max speed of 143 miles per hour and 0 mph to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds.
Exact pricing and model details for the U.S. are expected closer to when the midsize SUV goes on sale domestically later this year, according to an Audi spokesman.

Audi currently offers all-electric Q4 and Q8 SUVs as well as a $106,500 GT sedan in the U.S. market.
The Q6 e-tron features a new but familiar Audi design including sleek headlamps, mesh-style grille and an overall aggressive exterior design.
The new EV platform includes an 800-volt battery architecture and a maximum charging capacity of 270 kilowatt hours.

The Audi SQ6 e-tron SUV.

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