Nvidia GTC as the 'AI Super Bowl,' Tesla disappoints fans, and Meta winds down Horizon Worlds

Nvidia has staged what the press calls the "Super Bowl of AI": GTC, its annual developer conference, where CEO Jensen Huang traditionally takes the stage in his trademark leather jacket and sets the tone for the industry for the coming year. GTC stopped being an ordinary industry conference long ago. Thousands of engineers, executives from the biggest tech companies and journalists travel there to hear how Huang sees the future of computing.

This year's main themes were the Blackwell architecture, the next generation of GPU accelerators for training neural networks, and the concept of physical AI: systems that can interact with the real world through robots and autonomous machines. Nvidia no longer pitches itself as just a chip maker, but as a platform for building "the era of intelligent systems." Huang is not holding back on forecasts.

In his words, demand for AI computing infrastructure will grow faster than the industry's ability to build it. Blackwell systems are sold out months ahead. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta have put hundreds of billions into them as part of capital spending programs for the next two years.

Against this backdrop, Tesla is going through a public crisis of expectations. For years, the company and its fan community lived by specific dates: robotaxis, Level 5 Full Self-Driving, a Cybertruck without technical problems, a next-generation Roadster. Each of these promised milestones was either postponed or reinterpreted.

Pilot launches took place in a limited format and did not have the effect the company had counted on. Investors and fans have split: some believe in the long-term trajectory, others are tired of waiting. The reputational context makes things worse.

A brand that was once synonymous with the future is now associated, for part of its audience, with political controversy. Sales have dropped in a number of regions. Tesla remains the leader of the electric vehicle market, but its aura of infallibility has visibly dimmed.

The third story is Meta and its Horizon Worlds. The metaverse, into which the company poured tens of billions and for which it renamed the entire corporation, never became a mass-market product. In recent years, Meta has significantly cut the teams that worked on VR content and platform development.

Horizon Worlds has not been officially shut down, but it has only a handful of active users. The project has turned into an expensive symbol of a misjudged trend. This does not mean Meta has given up on the VR market.

Ray-Ban Meta glasses and the Quest 3 headset are selling better than forecast. But the bet on a "social metaverse," with virtual offices, avatars and VR events replacing face-to-face interaction, proved premature. Users were not ready to spend hours in headsets to chat with colleagues.

The week's three stories line up into one narrative: AI infrastructure is going through a gold rush, and Nvidia is its only "shovel seller." Tesla and Meta are a reminder of how easy it is to confuse hype with real demand. Real products need more than polished presentations; they need a market that is ready.

*Meta has been designated an extremist organization and is banned in Russia.