Tokyo (AFP) – Nvidia boss Jensen Huang expects China to eventually open its market to high-end US chips that can train and run artificial intelligence systems. But he did not discuss sales of the powerful H200 model with top officials in Beijing, the businessman told Bloomberg Television in an interview broadcast Monday. Huang travelled to the country last week with US President Donald Trump, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The superpowers are in a fierce race for AI supremacy, and the H200 chip had until recently been barred from sale in China by Washington over national security concerns. However, there is no sign that Chinese tech companies are buying them, as Beijing ramps up domestic chip development in a bid to challenge US dominance in the key sector.
“H200s are licensed to sell to China. But the Chinese government has to decide how much of their local market do they want to protect,” Huang said. “My sense is that over time the market will open,” added Huang, CEO of Nvidia — the world’s most valuable company, due to huge demand for its AI hardware.
Trump said in December he had reached an agreement with Xi to ease the restrictions on H200 chips, a move some US lawmakers have warned could help the Chinese military. Nvidia’s most top-of-the-range offerings, the Blackwell and forthcoming Rubin series, remain banned for sale in China.
Xi told a delegation of US business executives on Thursday that China would “open wider” to the world. “American companies will enjoy even brighter prospects in China,” Xi said, Chinese state media reported. Bloomberg Television asked Huang whether he spoke to Xi and Prime Minister Li Qiang about his chips. “I didn’t discuss directly with them about H200” although “President Trump had some conversations with the leaders,” he replied.
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