NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stood before Carnegie Mellon University's Class of 2026 on Sunday, May 10, and told 5,800 graduating students that artificial intelligence has eliminated the barrier to programming. "Everyone is now a programmer," he said during the commencement address at Gesling Stadium in Pittsburgh. "Anyone can ask AI to build something useful. A shopkeeper can create a website and grow a business. The AI writes the code."
But that speech came as tech companies have laid off 128,940 workers in 2026 so far, according to TrueUp's tech layoffs tracker. That's a 33% increase over the same period in 2025, according to analysis of Challenger, Gray & Christmas data. Of those cuts, 49,135 were attributed directly to AI adoption, representing 16% of all job losses that have happened this year till April.
What Jensen Huang Said About AI and Jobs
Huang, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $185.9 billion, received an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree before delivering a 20-minute address centered on AI's impact on employment and industry. His message to graduates was one of amplification, not replacement.
"AI does not replace human purpose — it amplifies human capability," Huang told graduates. He argued that radiologists won't lose jobs when AI reads scans; instead, they'll focus more on patient care. Also, software engineers will tackle more ambitious challenges as AI handles routine coding tasks. This shift, he said, represents how the technology "closes the technology divide" and makes computing power accessible to everyone.
