Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is crisscrossing Europe with a multibillion-dollar checkbook and a grand ambition: Make his company the indispensable backbone of the global AI economy.

Why it matters: As fears of an AI bubble rattle Wall Street, Huang is working to spread the boom beyond the U.S. and China — courting governments, bankrolling startups and cultivating massive new markets for Nvidia's chips.

The big picture: The godfather of AI is trying to single-handedly build a new market for Nvidia chips, betting that governments and institutions around the world will want their own, highly customized data centers running open models.

If it works, it could shore up demand for Nvidia chips just as another big group of customers — neoclouds — appear financially shaky.

Driving the news: Part showman, part salesman, Huang has spent the past week preaching the gospel of AI across Europe ahead of a keynote Wednesday at Nvidia's flagship conference in Berlin.

In France, Huang announced investments in four startups…