Peter Thiel says Nvidia is dominating the AI race, not Musk, Altman or Zuckerberg

AI race 2025: Billionaire investor and co-founder of Palantir Technologies, Peter Thiel doesn’t want to pick sides in the AI race between Tesla CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, or Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but he’s clear about one thing, that Jensen Huang-led Nvidia is the one quietly dominating, as per a report.

Peter Thiel Refuses to Pick AI Winner Between Musk, Altman and Zuckerberg

During the All-In Summit, Thiel avoided choosing a tech mogul that would win the AI race, which indcluded names of Altman, Musk and Zuckerberg, according to a Benzinga report. Instead, he responed by jokingly saying that his opinion changes depending on who he talks to last, as per the report.

He said, "Whoever I talk to last ... I find very convincing in the moment," and recalled his conversations where he was convinced by Musk when he slammed ChatGPT-parent OpenAI's pivot to a for-profit structure but later thought otherwise, saying, “Whoever I talk to last... I find very convincing in the moment,” referring to how his views shift based on recent conversations, as reported by Benzinga.


Thiel recalled that, “I thought to myself, ‘but you know, actually, man, it’s been such a horrifically mismanaged place at OpenAI with this preposterous nonprofit board they had nobody would do this again’ and so there actually isn’t much of a moral hazard from it,” as quoted in the report.

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Peter Thiel Explains Why Nvidia Is the Real Winner in the AI Race

Rather than focusing on the front-facing AI model builders like Meta, OpenAI, and xAI, Thiel believes the spotlight should be on Nvidia, the company powering the AI boom from behind the scenes with its GPUs, according to the Benzinga report.

Thiel pointed out that, "It's Nvidia, it's the hardware, the chips layer," adding that the if firm is making all the money while everybody else is collectively losing money, as reported by Benzinga.

According to him, Nvidia’s dominance is partly due to a generational shift in interest as talent left semiconductors overlooked in the recent period, as per the Benzinga report.

He explained that, "Nvidia got started in 1993," adding, "I believe that was the last year anybody in their right mind would have studied electrical engineering over computer science," as quoted in the report.

The billionaire highlighted that, "No talented people started semiconductor companies after 1993 because they all went into you know into software," as quoted in the Benzinga report.

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Is AI Hype Similar To Dot-Com Bubble?

Even as he praised Nvidia, Thiel warned of the bigger picture. He said that the AI boom today feels “uncomfortably close to 1999,” referring to the dot-com bubble, according to the Benzinga report. Still, he acknowledged Nvidia’s standout success amid the AI boom, noting that, "Maybe a year ago or two years ago, Nvidia would have been a good buy," adding that "now everyone knows they're making too much money and everyone's trying to copy them," as quoted in the report.

FAQs

Who does Peter Thiel think is winning the AI race?
Thiel believes Nvidia is dominating the AI space, not Musk, Altman, or Zuckerberg.

Did Thiel support any particular tech CEO?
No, he avoided picking a side and joked that his opinion changes depending on who he speaks to last.