• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's Berlin keynote was interrupted by Greenpeace protesters onstage.
• Huang was making the case for Europe to build an AI economy with factories and agents.
• His finale featured a wobbly Microduck robot demo and an AI-generated Eurovision-style video.

Even for a seasoned keynote pro like Jensen Huang, there's always the risk that things don't go fully to plan.

The Nvidia CEO opened the company's Berlin conference on Wednesday to make the case that Europe should build its own AI economy — complete with AI factories, autonomous agents, and robots.

But the pitch was interrupted about 20 minutes into the keynote by protesters holding a Greenpeace banner reading, "Nvidia, clean your dirty business!"

One protester shouted: "Clean up your act! What about the technology that was found in Russian drones? Those were Nvidia chips. What are you doing about that? What are you doing about the environmental destruction?"

The protester appeared to be referring to an August statement from Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, which said it had identified an Nvidia Jetson Orin computer module in a Russian S-71 Monochrome cruise missile. The agency did not allege that Nvidia knowingly supplied the component to Russia.

Greenpeace said in a press release that it's calling on Nvidia to extend its 100% renewable energy target across its wider supply chain and to conduct audits to ensure its technology doesn't end up in military equipment. Nvidia did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comments.

As security escorted the protester away, Huang said, "Give her a chance," and that "everybody has a chance to say something." He then told the applauding crowd: "All important issues … but let me get through my keynote."

Huang, after joking that he had to "torture" the audience with "some education" before "the entertainment," then pressed on with Nvidia's pitch for Europe's AI future. He unveiled DSX POD, a modular system for AI factories, and promoted OpenShell, a platform designed to help companies run autonomous AI agents securely.

'Pay attention!'

The entertainment came near the end of the keynote, when Huang brought four small robots, known as Microducks, from French startup Pollen Robotics onstage.

The demo was charming, but not entirely obedient.

When Huang told the robots to "take a nap," one kept walking before eventually falling alongside the others. Later, only two appeared to perform a somersault when he asked them to.

Another robot lingered farther away from the group and tripped before getting back up. "Pay attention! Stay focused. Come here, come here. Stay focused," Huang told it. It eventually approached and sat down, drawing laughter from the audience.

Huang then closed the event with an AI-generated video of robots singing in a Eurovision-style contest.

The demo came a day after Huang told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Europe could not regulate its way to technological leadership.

"There's nothing to regulate if the industry doesn't thrive," Huang told Merz.

• United CEO Scott Kirby says he's all for a nationwide wealth tax.
• Kirby said wealth inequality "has become a danger to our society."
• While Kirby doesn't want a state-by-state approach, California voters will soon vote on a proposed billionaire tax.

United CEO Scott Kirby says "wealth inequality has become a danger to our society."

That's why Kirby said he supports a nationwide wealth tax.

"We should have a national wealth tax — it won't work by state because people will just move," Kirby recently told The New York Times.

Kirby, who lives in the Chicago area near United's headquarters, was one of the highest-paid CEOs of a public company in 2025, according to Crain's Chicago Business. Kirby's 2025 total compensation was valued at over $32 million, according to United's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wealth taxes are facing one of their biggest tests yet this November. Californians will vote on what, if approved, would become the world's first billionaire tax.

The fight is pitting some of the state's wealthiest individuals against the proposal. Google cofounder Sergey Brin alone has donated $102 million to a group seeking to undercut the proposed wealth tax by proposing competing initiatives that could effectively cancel it out.

In addition to a wealth tax, Kirby also said that inheritance taxes should be increased.

"We should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100 percent at some level," he said. "I would pay them."

Kirby's views may seem unusual among corporate leaders, but others are at least open to the idea of wealth taxes.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently reiterated his willingness to pay potentially billions of dollars if California's wealth tax goes into effect.

"I don't mind paying taxes," Huang said. "The more you make, the more taxes you pay, so I'm OK with it."

Huang, who famously got his start working at Denny's, said he worries about other things. Bloomberg estimates that the Nvidia CEO is now worth $180 billion, making him the ninth richest person in the world.

"The fact that I can afford to pay $8 billion in taxes over five years is a privilege," he said. "I'm not afraid of paying taxes. I'm just afraid of being poor."

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wants Europe to be less cautious in its approach to AI innovation.
• Huang told Germany's chancellor that the country and others in Europe are overreliant on regulation.
• "I think you overthink things," he told British journalists on a trip to the UK last week.

Cast off the shackles and be bolder, or risk losing the AI race for good.

That's the pointed message Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has delivered to European leaders during his trip to the continent over the past week.

Over the last seven days, Huang has visited France, Sweden, the UK, and Germany ahead of Nvidia's GTC event in Berlin, which began Tuesday.

During that time, he's been clear that he believes the continent needs to move faster on artificial intelligence and rely less heavily on regulating the sector.

Huang made the case most directly on Monday evening in Berlin, during a public conversation with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Asked how Europe should regulate AI, Huang said safety had to be paramount, but cautioned that policymakers could not regulate their way to technological leadership.

"There's nothing to regulate if the industry doesn't thrive," Huang told Merz, arguing that Germany needed to foster a domestic AI industry while ensuring it developed safely and responsibly.

He said that policymakers should focus on regulating AI applications, similar to the way they regulate products that use the internet, rather than trying to regulate the underlying technology wholesale.

"We should be regulating the applications right away," Huang said.

Merz replied that Europe was still trying to find the balance between innovation and regulation. The German leader said he did not believe "no regulation" was the right answer, but that overly tight rules were not either.

Huang’s response: "Give Germany a chance. Give this industry a chance."

The exchange came as Huang and Merz pitched AI as a potential answer to the economic malaise that led Germany into recessions in 2023 and 2024.

Huang said the country's manufacturing sector, engineering expertise, and industrial know-how are national resources, and that AI could help its companies turn them into an advantage in the next phase of the technology race.

"The next wave of AI is physical," Huang said, referring to robotics, manufacturing, cars, and heavy industry. "Electrons will never replace atoms."

It was the same urgent message Huang had delivered in London days earlier. Speaking to reporters last week, Huang said there was a "strange general behavior" going on in the UK.

He took a swipe at what he described as Britain’s tendency to dwell on failure.

"You have smart people, you have a great culture, you have young people, and the energy is vibrant. But for some reason, if there was a million reasons to win, you find the one reason not to do it."

"I think you overthink things," he added.

The remarks underscore a familiar tension in Europe’s approach to AI. The continent has moved early to establish sweeping rules for the technology, including the EU AI Act, while the US and China have pulled ahead in developing frontier models and the infrastructure needed to train them.

Huang, whose company dominates the market for the advanced chips powering the AI boom, is hardly a neutral observer. Nvidia stands to benefit enormously if governments and companies move faster to build AI infrastructure and deploy its technology.

Regardless of his stake in Europe's AI success, Huang's message was blunt. If the continent spends too long debating how to regulate AI, it may find that the meaningful innovation is done elsewhere.