Self-driving cars, robots, and intelligent AI agents automating everyday tasks for everyone are on the horizon, according to tech giant Nvidia, which revealed record-breaking results Thursday.
The trailblazing company at the heart of the AI revolution nearly doubled its net profit to US$43 billion over the three months ended December 31 on sales that surged 73 per cent to $US68.1 billion, or around $US5.6 billion ($8 billion) every week.
The jaw-dropping numbers reflect the scramble among mega-cap tech businesses – as the purchasers of Nvidia’s AI powered computer chips to offer consumers services powered by artificial intelligence.
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On Thursday, Nvidia’s finance boss, Colette Kress, told investors that physical AI in the form of self-driving cars is already reshaping auto-transport in the US, with the structural shift set to spill across the world in the years ahead.
“Robotaxi rides are growing exponentially,” Ms Kress said. “With commercial fleets from Waymo, Tesla, Uber, WeRide, and Zoox, and many others expected to scale from thousands of vehicles in 2025 to millions over the next decade, creating a market poised to generate hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue.”
Future of AI agents
Self-driving cars are already on the streets, but it’s the potential future of an AI agent for everyone that’s really exciting mega-cap tech businesses like Alphabet-owner Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.
They plan to spend more than $US600 billion between them in 2026 on infrastructure to deliver the computing power they think will be needed to meet the demands of serving their more than 3.5 billion users.
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram boss, Mark Zuckerberg, has repeatedly declared his business is developing ‘super intelligence’ for its users likely in the form of an intelligent digital agent or assistant that will perform everyday tasks on command.
Meta already sells wearable Ray-Bans sunglasses that lets AI see what you see, hear what you hear and intelligently talk or guide you throughout the day.
A more advanced personal super agent in the future offers almost unlimited possibilities. For example, it could book a Yoga class for you, tell you how long to allow to drive there, and remind you to pack what clothes in the morning.
It could also monitor your performance in class, tell you what to eat afterwards, and order the best value food to collect at either of two different supermarkets at a convenient time.
The next day if you wanted to buy an investment property it could list all those free to inspect with the right dimensions, in the right area, at the right time, and arrange to inspect them, while searching for the cheapest mortgage, and reminding you to shop for a child’s upcoming birthday.
In other words a consumer could end up locked into an AI agent’s online eco-systems to such an extent that the idea of visiting a website his or herself might start to seem old-fashioned.
This vision of a reshaped internet with an agent sitting between the consumer and interfaces has already rocked whipsawed share markets in 2026 as investors attempt to work out what businesses might be winners and losers, from AI agents.
In the AI-powered algorithm economy what starts with the human training the agent to do things on its behalf, soon switches to the agent training the human back on what to do in his or her routines, habits, and material desires.
This system of training humans back for the commercial benefit of their owners (the mega-cap tech businesses) to sell adverts already exists. But super-intelligent AI agents – powered by Nvidia’s chips – will likely have an even firmer control on where mega-cap tech’s machines train their billions of users to spend.
Nvidia’s growth runway
So, underinvesting in AI is not an option for the Nasdaq-listed tech masters of the algorithm economy and analysts are united in the belief that Nvidia is likely to remain this mega-trend’s chief beneficiary.
“Nvidia has hit a six,” said David Tuckwell the chief investment officer of ETF Shares. “To paragraph Mark Twain, its results suggests that rumours of the AI trade’s death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Mr Tuckwell added that it’s “tricky” to know if investors should buy Nvidia shares this week, or wait for a potentially lower entry price given its blockbuster run, although the ‘super intelligence’ economy for everyone is likely still at least a few years away to mean the chip maker has room to run over the long term.
“If profit results like this don’t raise [share] prices that suggests retail investor interest is fatiguing in Nvidia,” he said. “Expectations were already so high. I think there probably needs to be a catalyst for Nvidia’s share price to push higher from here. Longer term though it’s a buy, as its operating leverage to future investment themes like humanoid robotics is unrivalled.”
Intelligent robots running on Nvidia’s computer chips are already a reality in luxury hotels for example where they will deliver room service in place of human workers. Other daily tasks such as cleaning and reception work could soon be automated.
Nvidia already supplies chips to leading autonomous machine manufacturers, including Boston Dynamics, Caterpillar, FANUC Robotics, LG Electronics, and Neurorobotics. It seems likely demand for their inventions will surge ahead.
