By Eduardo Baptista and Ju-min Park
GYEONGJU, South Korea (Reuters) -Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Friday he hoped the company’s state-of-the-art Blackwell chips can be sold in China, although the decision needed to be made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Speaking during his first official visit to South Korea in more than a decade, a day after Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held talks there, Huang said he was delighted by the success of the meeting between the two presidents, but was not aware of what they spoke about.
After the talks on Thursday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that semiconductors had been discussed and China was “going to be talking to Nvidia and others about taking chips”.
But Trump added: “We’re not talking about the Blackwell.”
“We’re always hoping to return to China, and I think that Nvidia in China is very good. It’s in the best interest of United States. It’s in the best interest of China,” Huang said.
“So I’m hopeful that both governments will arrive at a conclusion someday where Nvidia’s technology could be exported to China.”
US-CHINA FRICTION
The extent of China’s access to Nvidia’s chips has been a key point of friction with the United States as the two wrestle for dominance in high-end computing power and artificial intelligence.
Washington has put export controls on sales of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, seeking to limit its tech progress, particularly in applications that could help its military.
Huang has tried to persuade the Trump administration to loosen the controls, saying Chinese AI’s dependence on U.S. hardware was good for America.
Nvidia has been working on a new chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture that will be less capable than the model sold outside the country but more powerful than the most advanced model it is currently allowed to sell there, the H20, sources have previously said.
But while private Chinese companies are believed to be very interested in purchasing such a chip, the Chinese government has turned cool towards Nvidia, discouraging purchases of the H20, and is instead promoting domestic chip manufacturers such as Huawei.
Huang told reporters that Nvidia had been hoping for “non-zero market share” in China, but was now expecting zero.
U.S. national security concerns that the Chinese military could use U.S. technology did not make sense, he added, because China’s own domestically produced AI chips were good enough for their military applications.
He also said it would be “foolish” to underestimate the incredible competitive spirit of Huawei, which last month unveiled its plans to compete against Nvidia in AI chips.
“It’s deeply uninformed to think that Huawei can’t build systems,” he said. “It is foolish to underestimate the might of China and the incredible competitive spirit of Huawei. This is a company with extraordinary technology.”
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul, Eduardo Baptista and Ju-min Park in Gyeongju; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Clarence Fernandez and Kim Coghill)
