China will win the AI race, Nvidia CEO says. The company's share in this market fell to 0%
China has an advantage due to low costs and weak regulation, says Jensen Huang
China may surpass the US in the artificial intelligence race, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview with the FT. However, he then softened his stance somewhat, emphasizing the importance of America's leadership in this area. His remarks came amid a discussion about the technological standoff between Beijing and Washington, which centers on Nvidia's chip exports. Despite attempts to strike a balance through agreements with the White House, China has effectively shut the company out of the market, and its market share there has plummeted from 95% to zero, according to Huang.
Details
"China will win the artificial intelligence race," the Financial Times quoted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as saying. Lower energy costs and less regulation will contribute to this, Huang said.
However, a few hours after the FT story was published, Nvidia sought to soften Huang's stance somewhat by releasing an additional statement on his behalf on its official X social media account, CNBC writes.
"I've long said that China is only nanoseconds behind America in AI. It's vital for the US to win by developing faster and attracting developers from around the world," the report said.
Huang has repeatedly argued that the U.S. can maintain its lead in the AI race if developers continue to rely on Nvidia's advanced chips, CNBC noted, which is the argument he used when opposing Washington's restrictions on the company's products in China.
Why it's important
China's access to advanced AI chips, especially those produced by Nvidia - the world's largest technology company by capitalization - remains a key point of tension in the technology standoff between Beijing and Washington, Reuters writes .
"We want the world to be built on an American technological foundation - that's for sure. But we also need to have a presence in China to win the competition for their developers. A policy that causes America to lose half of the world's AI specialists only hurts us in the long run," Huang said in October (quoted by Reuters).
In July, Nvidia and rival AMD agreed to transfer to the U.S. government 15% of revenue generated from the sale of some AI processors in China, in return for export licenses to ship their chips to China, sources told the FT. However, Beijing subsequently closed Nvidia's access to the local market, sources told Reuters. In October, Huang said the company's share in China had collapsed from 95% to zero. "In all our forecasts, we assume zero for China. If something happens there, which I hope it does, that would be a bonus," the Nvidia CEO said (quoted by Quartz).
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
