Nvidia boss says blocking China from US AI chips 'hurts us more'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Tuesday warned that the United States must allow the sale of U.S.-made AI chips in China in order to ensure Silicon Valley companies remain a global powerhouse in providing artificial intelligence.

“We want the world to be built on American tech stack,” Huang told reporters at a company event in Washington, using the term developers use for computer technology.

“But we also need to be in China to win their developers. A policy that causes America to lose half of the world’s AI developers is not beneficial long term. It hurts us more,” he added.

Huang spoke before an expected meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping where AI technology is expected to be on the table.

Nvidia chips are currently not sold in China due to a combination of Chinese government bans, national security concerns, and ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Instead, China has ramped up its chip industry to beat restrictions imposed by Washington on exports of the most advanced chips, used to power AI systems, to China.

The United States cites national security concerns, such as the risk of giving China a military advantage, for the block. This geopolitical bind shows no sign of easing.

The Trump administration favours a more nuanced approach on selling AI chips to China, but faces deep skepticism from China hawks across the U.S. political spectrum who favor tougher bans on AI technology.

“This perspective…in understanding how AI works…is something that I advocated in the last (Biden) administration, and it felt it didn’t fall right because somehow there’s a belief that shutting them out, hurting them is better for us, and it’s not,” Huang said.

Huang expressed hope that Trump could help guide the policy, warning that without action, U.S. technology could shrink from dominating the global tech market.