How five top CEOs described the AI boom in 2024

Throughout 2024, CNBC’s Jim Cramer discussed the seemingly boundless rise of artificial intelligence with dozens of CEOs across the tech world. Here is how five top enterprise leaders characterized AI’s meteoric rise this year.

1. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the “AI computing ramp” is only beginning and will last years.

   Huang in March painted a picture of the AI landscape, saying investments in the new technology remain in the early innings. He predicted years of growth ahead and suggested that AI can drive innovation in a variety of fields, including science and healthcare.

   Nvidia is a titan of the AI revolution, as it designs and sells advanced technology essential for the technology. The company is the top supplier of GPUs, which are used to develop and implement new AI software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Big Tech broadly is clamoring for Nvidia’s products, with customers including Meta, Tesla, Microsoft and Amazon shelling out billions. Nvidia stock is currently up more than 176% year-to-date, and at times this year it surpassed Apple to become the most valuable company on the market.

2. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said cybercriminals are leveling up: “It’s going to be the battle of AI in the future.”

   Kurtz in February described how his cybersecurity company is fighting cybercrime that is “more active than ever,” as hacker ranks grow and become more advanced with new AI technology in their arsenals. He said generative AI is democratizing “very esoteric techniques and attacks,” so less-skilled cybercriminals can still carry out advanced attacks.

   “What we talked about in the earnings call is the ability to create more adversaries with lower skill levels, but operating at a much higher skill level, leveraging generative AI,” Kurtz said, “Of course, on the security side, we leverage generative AI to help protect our customers, so it’s going to be the battle of AI in the future.”

3. Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said generative AI will keep him “busy for many years to come.”

   Ramaswamy took the reigns at Snowflake in February, and he described the way the data analytics software maker plans to use new AI technology.

   “We have so much ambition to do more, whether it is applications running on top of Snowflake, or, of course, using the power of generative AI, which I’ve been focused on for the past year, to democratize access to enterprise data, to have even more people be able to get at the data quickly to get value from it,” Ramaswamy said. “So I think there’s a huge opportunity in the world of data applications and AI that’ll keep me busy for many years to come.”

   Snowflake has collaborated with Nvidia, and in May, Ramaswamy teased a new project with the AI darling. According to him, Snowflake’s product pipeline, “especially in AI, has been in overdrive.”

4. AMD CEO Lisa Su described competition with Nvidia: “There’s no one size fits all in computing.”

   Although Nvidia leads the pack in the red-hot semiconductor design industry, competition is stiff, with companies like AMD and Intel vying for customers who are willing to pay top dollar. But in September, when asked about competition with Nvidia, Su suggested there is room for more than one major player in the sector. According to her, the “technology ecosystem” works properly when there’s competition and partnership, and customers want the ability to choose between several solid options.

   “The way to think about it is, there’s no one size fits all in computing,” Su said. “There’s no, you know, only one architecture. Actually, you’re going to need the right compute for each application.”

   Su said she believes “AI will impact everyone’s lives,” and that the world is just beginning to realize what the new technology can do. She also said people shouldn’t be impatient about AI’s impact because “tech trends are meant to play out over years, not over months.”

5. Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld CEO said pressure on the power grid “is only going to get worse” from weather and technology.

   Jagdgeld warned that pressure on the power grid is only going to increase as demand for data centers and other technology related to artificial intelligence continues to grow. 40% of the generator company’s business comes from commercial and industrial-type products, he said, like backup for manufacturing plants, distribution centers, hospitals and data centers.

   “This has become a massively critical discussion point,” Jagdfeld said. “This is only going to get worse.”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Nvidia, AMD and CrowdStrike.