Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said losing China’s artificial intelligence (AI) market would be a huge loss, with the market poised for significant growth in the coming years, as the chip designer faces tightening export restrictions from Washington.
China’s AI market is likely to grow to US$50 billion in the next two to three years, Huang said in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC on Tuesday. “It would be a tremendous loss not to be able to address it as an American company,” he said.
Selling to China would also help bring revenue back to the US, contributing to taxes and helping to “create lots of jobs”, he added. “The world’s dynamic today. You just got to stay agile.”
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The remarks come as the US semiconductor giant grapples with the impact of US export controls, which were recently expanded to cover Nvidia’s China-tailored H20 AI chips. China’s Big Tech firms, including Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, currently use these chips to develop and train their AI models.
Nvidia began selling the H20 chips in early 2024, after its advanced A100, H100, A800 and H800 AI chips were all placed under US export controls meant to address national security concerns. As the US tightened these controls, Nvidia has offered modified versions of its chips meant to comply with the new restrictions.
Huang has repeatedly stressed the significance of the China’s AI market, as the company seeks to maintain a presence in the country that contributed roughly 14 per cent of its revenue last financial year, accounting for US$17.1 billion.
In an interview with US reporters in Washington last week, Huang said China is “right behind” the US in AI competition.
He also cautioned that Huawei Technologies, the Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment giant, is becoming “one of the most formidable technology companies in the world”, as the firm has made enormous progress in recent years with “essential capabilities to advance AI”.
Huang said he would like Washington to change regulations for exporting AI technology from the US to the rest of the world so American businesses can better capitalise on future opportunities.
In mid-April, Huang made a surprise visit to China right after its H20 AI chips, which were tailor-made for Chinese clients to comply with previous export rules, were banned from export to the country. Before the trip, the company disclosed that the H20 restrictions would cost it US$5.5 billion.
During the trip, which was Huang’s second to China in three months, he met with senior government officials, including Vice-Premier He Lifeng, who is in charge of US-China trade talks, as well as Shanghai mayor Gong Zheng.
Huang also met with Ren Hongbin, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, where he expressed hope that Nvidia could continue to cooperate with China, as it was a “key market” for the company, according to state-owned China Central Television.
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