'Too lazy': NVIDIA's Jensen Huang says CEOs use AI as cover story for layoffs that has nothing to do with it

Published 12 June 2026 · tech

When the chief executive of the world's most valuable AI chipmaker tells the business world it is misusing artificial intelligence as an excuse, people tend

When the chief executive of the world's most valuable AI chipmaker tells the business world it is misusing artificial intelligence as an excuse, people tend to listen. Jensen Huang, whose company Nvidia sits at the very centre of the global AI boom, has sparked a fresh debate by publicly challenging the growing corporate habit of attributing layoffs to AI, calling the reasoning sloppy and, in many cases, simply dishonest. The remarks, made in an interview with Singapore broadcaster CNA, have cut through because of who is making them. Huang has more financial interest than almost any executive alive in presenting AI as an unstoppable, transformative force. Instead, he is telling chief executives to own their decisions. What Jensen Huang actually said about AI and layoffs The NVIDIA chief executive did not mince his words when asked about the wave of corporate redundancies being pinned on artificial intelligence. "I think the narrative that connects AI to job loss for many of the CEOs that are doing it, it is just too lazy," Huang told CNA. "How is it possible that AI became productive and useful only six months ago, and they were somehow laying people off two years ago because of AI?" The question is pointed and the logic is straightforward. If AI only recently became capable enough to meaningfully displace workers, it cannot credibly be cited as the cause of redundancies announced well before that threshold was reached.

Why executives have reached for AI as a convenient excuse The pattern Jensen Huang is describing did not emerge from nowhere. The pandemic-era hiring boom, in which technology companies in particular expanded their workforces at a pace that proved unsustainable, gave way to a prolonged cycle of redundancies as consumer demand cooled and investor patience with high costs thinned. Also Read | Trump administration invites NVIDIA, Boeing CEOs for China visit Telling shareholders and staff that leadership miscalculated the future is an uncomfortable admission that sits uneasily alongside executive pay packages. Attributing the same outcome to an era-defining technological shift is a considerably more palatable narrative, one that frames management as forward-thinking rather than reactive. AI, in other words, has become a useful umbrella under which complicated and sometimes embarrassing business decisions can be quietly shelved. Slowing revenue growth, overestimated hiring needs and shifting strategic priorities can all drive redundancies, but none of them generate the same headlines as an AI transformation story. The companies that blamed AI for layoffs: a two-year scorecard The scale of AI-attributed job cuts over the past two years gives Huang's remarks their sharpest context. Over 100,000 employees were affected by AI-driven layoffs in 2025 alone, with more than 50 chief executives announcing redundancies they attributed to efficiencies created by artificial intelligence. Programs At least nine companies announced AI-related layoffs affecting 10,000 or more employees each, among them Accenture, Amazon, Citigroup, Dell, HSBC, Intel, Microsoft, TCS and UPS.