Nvidia has paused the AI Ambassador training program at the center of a $10 million workforce deal with Oregon. The move leaves $1.5 million in state funds unspent.

Salem-based Chemeketa Community College holds a separate $550,000 grant from the same fund to build a semiconductor training lab and career program. The ambassador pause does not directly target that money, but it removes a training pipeline the state agreement listed as a key measure of success.

The company stopped the program this spring before training any new ambassadors in Oregon, the Oregon Capital Chronicle first reported Thursday, Oct. 1. Nvidia confirmed the pause but would not say why.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signed a one-year agreement with Gov. Tina Kotek and Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) Executive Director Ben Cannon in April 2025. The deal was meant to place company-trained "AI ambassadors" on Oregon college campuses and bring foundational AI instruction into K-12 schools.

Of the $10 million in state spending from Oregon's Semiconductor Talent Sustaining Fund, about $8.5 million has been awarded to eight institutions. Chemeketa received $550,000 to pilot a semiconductor "Career Navigator" program and build a mock fabrication lab for hands-on training, according to a HECC press release from April 1, 2026.

The remaining $1.5 million was set aside for the ambassador program. None of it has been spent, HECC spokesperson Endi Hartigan told the Capital Chronicle.

All eight grant recipients belong to the Frontiers of Advanced Semiconductor Technology program, a collaborative led by Oregon State University that counts Nvidia among its 95 partners.

A faculty member at Southern Oregon University who applied to become an ambassador received an email saying the program was suspended "until further notice," according to university spokesperson Joe Mosley. At Oregon Institute of Technology, ambassador hopefuls got an email that Nvidia was "restructuring the program internally." Oregon Tech spokesperson Ashley VanEssen said, "To my knowledge, our faculty have not received any additional updates since then."

The Oregon Department of Education, which the agreement tasked with working alongside Nvidia on K-12 AI instruction, said it has no plans within the scope of the deal, according to department spokesperson Liz Merah.

The pause comes as Oregon's semiconductor workforce sits at a 30-year low. Employment plummeted after layoffs that eliminated 6,000 jobs at Intel and hundreds more elsewhere, The Oregonian reported in June.

Gov. Kotek's spokesperson Luke Harkins said in a statement that the governor remains supportive of the agreement's original goal of preparing Oregon's workforce. No timeline for restarting the ambassador program has been announced.