LONDON — Wherever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang goes, excitement follows — this time, all the way to London Tech Week.

The Nvidia boss — whom Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives dubs the “godfather of AI” — is more like a rockstar these days, given his wide-spanning effect on the AI industry.

“The amount of infrastructure required for AI wouldn’t be possible without that man,” one attendee at London Tech Week said.

“He’s like Iron Man,” the attendee added, referencing the popular Marvel superhero who is a tech billionaire inventor under the name of Tony Stark.

The lines to get into the Olympia auditorium were already building around 40 minutes before Jensen was set to take the stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not everyone managed to get in — but there were helpfully screens around the venue where people could catch a glimpse of Huang’s talk.

The Nvidia CEO gave his continued bullish assessment of artificial intelligence, calling it an “incredible technology” and saying it should be seen as infrastructure, just like electricity.

There weren’t any multi-billion-dollar investments touted at London Tech Week. But the biggest win for Starmer and the U.K. by far was Huang’s lavish praise for the country.

Wearing his trademark leather jacket, Huang called the U.K. the “envy of the world” that is in the midst of a “Goldilocks circumstance,” boasting a vibrant venture capital ecosystem, as well as budding AI entrepreneurs from leading firms including Google DeepMind, Synthesia, Wayve and ElevenLabs.

Speaking alongside Huang, Starmer spoke in an animated manner as he touted Nvidia’s investments in the U.K. Earlier in the day, the U.S. chipmaker announced a new “U.K. sovereign AI industry forum,” as well as commitments from cloud vendors Nscale and Nebius to deploy new facilities containing thousands of its Blackwell GPU chips.

Starmer spoke at length about AI’s promise and the ways in which it could ease the burdens faced by the U.K.’s public sector institutions, from hospitals to schools.

Huang added that the U.K. is “such a great place to invest,” noting that Nvidia plans to partner with the country to upskill tech workers and build out domestic AI infrastructure.

“Infrastructure enables more research — more research, more breakthroughs, more companies,” the Nvidia chief said. “That flywheel will start taking off. It’s already quite large, but we’re just going to get that flywheel going.”

Starmer thanked Huang for his point, commenting that “the confidence it gives when you explain it that way is huge.”

“From our point of view, we’re really pleased to be seen that way,” the U.K. leader said.

The pair shook hands at the end.

Altogether, there was a lot of energy in the room. Huang said he was “excited” for London Tech Week, and he was met with a round of applause from the audience.

Huang has become the CEO everyone wants to be seen with. Nvidia has positioned itself as central to the AI revolution, which many commentators say is in the early innings.

Nvidia wants that revolution to be built on its chips. And for countries like the U.K., these moments provide a chance for the country to tout its investment potential and for its leader to publicly share a stage with the man seen as powering the AI push.

London was Huang’s first stop in a broader European tour.

The Nvidia boss will travel to Paris later this week, where the chipmaker will host its GTC conference. Politicians including President Emmanuel Macron, who has driven France’s ambition to become a European AI hub, will also likely want some face time with Huang.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is hoping that Americans’ love for ranch will boost its sales.

On June 17, the burrito chain is launching Adobo Ranch, a spicier take on the iconic condiment that has transcended salads to adorn pizza, chicken wings and chips. The menu item is Chipotle’s first new dip since queso blanco, which launched in 2020.

The debut comes as Chipotle tries to recover from a rough start to the year. In the first quarter, the company reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020. Executives cited a pullback from consumers who had become more concerned about the economy.

The company also lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth and said traffic wouldn’t grow until the second half of the year.

Shares of Chipotle have fallen 12% this year, dragging its market cap down to $71 billion.

But Adobo Ranch could help to boost the company’s sales if it draws cautious diners back to the chain’s restaurants.

The dipping sauce is made with adobo peppers, sour cream and herbs and spices, according to the company. Adding Adobo Ranch to an order will cost an extra 75 cents.

Ranch outsells ketchup, although NIQ retail sales data shows that mayo still holds the top spot as the favorite condiment of U.S. consumers.

Walmart’s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay said Monday it was launching a pair of credit cards with a bank partner for customers of the world’s biggest retailer.

OnePay is partnering with Synchrony, a major behind-the-scenes player in retail cards, which will issue the cards and handle underwriting decisions starting in the fall, the companies said.

OnePay, which was created by Walmart in 2021 with venture firm Ribbit Capital, will handle the customer experience for the card program through its mobile app.

Walmart had leaned on Capital One as the exclusive provider of its credit cards since 2018, but sued the bank in 2023 so that it could exit the relationship years ahead of schedule. At the time, Capital One accused Walmart of seeking to end its partnership so that it could move transactions to OnePay.

The Walmart card program had 10 million customers and roughly $8.5 billion in loans outstanding last year, when the partnership with Capital One ended, according to Fitch Ratings.

For Walmart and its fintech firm, the arrangement shows that, in seeking to quickly scale up in financial services, OnePay is opting to partner with established players rather than going it alone.

In March, OnePay announced that it was tapping Swedish fintech firm Klarna to handle buy now, pay later loans at the retailer, even after testing its own installment loan program.

In its quest to become a one-stop shop for Americans underserved by traditional banks, OnePay has methodically built out its offerings, which now include debit cards, high-yield savings accounts and a digital wallet with peer-to-peer payments.

OnePay is rolling out two options: a general purpose credit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted and a store card that will only allow Walmart purchases.

Customers whose credit profiles don’t allow them to qualify for the general purpose card will be offered the store card, according to a person with knowledge of the program.

OnePay hasn’t yet disclosed the rewards expected for making purchases with the cards. The Synchrony partnership was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” OnePay CEO Omer Ismail said in the Monday release.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people,” Ismail said.