Nvidia’s market capitalisation of roughly $3tn has occasionally made it the biggest company in the world. Founder Jensen Huang, a man rarely short of self-confidence, hinted this week at plans that could make it even bigger.

At Nvidia’s annual, festival-like GTC conference on Wednesday, Huang said he expected his company to spend around $500bn on electronics over the next four years. Of that, “several hundred billion” could be produced in the US. This is the kind of remark that plays nicely to the America First agenda of President Trump, who promptly used Nvidia’s remarks as proof of a manufacturing renaissance.

In an industry that thinks in trillions, it’s easy to become blind to such numbers. Gripped by an artificial intelligence boom, market capitalisations and investment budgets have spiralled upwards. But there is not a line in Nvidia’s expenses or cash flow statements for which $500bn, even spread over four years, wouldn’t be a whale of a sum.