And he says even more "intelligent products" will be connected to the web.
Mr Negroponte, co-founder and director of Media Laboratory in the world-leading science university, the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), said: "The forecasters have made some extraordinary underestimates.
"The digital world is moving so fast that before the end of next year, we will see a billion people on the internet."
He went on: "Part of that explosion will happen in developing countries." And he added that most forecasters underestimated the likely take-up in developing countries.
"Certain countries we do not expect to be digital will become very digital very fast," Mr Negroponte said.
Intelligent fridges and doorknobs
Even more products than people will be connected to the web.
Earlier this year, Electrolux announced an intelligent fridge, that allows online ordering of food.
This is just the thin end of the wedge, Mr Negroponte says, with smaller products, that are replaced more frequently, such as toys, likely to lead the way.
"How often do you buy a fridge?" he said. "Think of Barbie dolls. There are likely to be more Barbie dolls connected to the internet in ten years than Americans," he said.
Everyday products such as doorknobs could be embedded with computers, he predicted.
"Clearly if that doorknob could see, listen, speak, it could do a great deal more than an ordinary doorknob. If it sees me walking up to the door with my groceries, it can open the door... it might even be security-conscious and ask me my mother's maiden name," he said.
The speed of change will be determined by the cost of telecoms, the cost of computers and the technologies to make payments.
Founding technologies
Mr Negroponte was a founder of MIT's Media Laboratory, a leader in the field of digital video and multimedia.
News of a link-up between Cambridge University in the UK and MIT has fuelled hopes that the latter's entrepreneurial spirit will be transplanted across the Atlantic.
The two universities will create the Cambridge-MIT institute, an education and research enterprise that has the financial backing of the UK Treasury for 80% of its $135m (£84m) budget for the next five years.
The balance of the funding will be raised from British industry.
MIT graduates have founded more than 4,000 firms.
Visions of business in the 21st Century
(01 Nov 99 | The Economy)
IT calls home
(07 Oct 99 | The Company File)
Why the Web means business
(21 Jun 99 | The Company File)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Inquiry into energy provider loyalty
Brown considers IMF job
Chinese imports boost US trade gap
No longer Liffe as we know it
The growing threat of internet fraud
House passes US budget
Online share dealing triples
Rate fears as sales soar
Brown's bulging war-chest
Oil reaches nine-year high
UK unemployment falls again
Trade talks deadlocked
US inflation still subdued
Insolvent firms to get breathing space
Bank considered bigger rate rise
UK pay rising 'too fast'
Utilities face tough regulation
CBI's new chief named
US stocks hit highs after rate rise
US Fed raises rates
UK inflation creeps up
Row over the national shopping basket
Military airspace to be cut
TUC warns against following US
World growth accelerates
Union merger put in doubt
Japan's tentative economic recovery
EU fraud costs millions
CBI choice 'could wreck industrial relations'
WTO hails China deal
US business eyes Chinese market
Red tape task force
Websites and widgets
Guru predicts web surge
Malaysia's economy: The Sinatra Principle
Shell secures Iranian oil deal
Irish boom draws the Welsh
China deal to boost economy
US dream scenario continues
Japan's billion dollar spending spree