Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed frustration after reports that China banned the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips, deepening uncertainty over the U.S. tech giant’s business in the world’s second-largest economy.
According to the Financial Times, the Cyberspace Administration of China instructed firms including ByteDance and Alibaba to halt purchases of Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip specifically developed for the Chinese market.
Asked about the report on Wednesday, Huang said: “We can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be. We probably contributed more to the China market than most countries have. And I’m disappointed with what I see. But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.”
Nvidia’s China business faces more turbulence
Huang described Nvidia’s operations in China as “a bit of a roller coaster” in recent years. “We’ve guided all financial analysts not to include China in forecasts,” he said, citing political uncertainty as the key reason.
The U.S. government has already restricted exports of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China, including the H20 server chip, over national security concerns. However, in August, President Donald Trump struck a deal with Huang allowing Nvidia to secure export licenses in exchange for diverting 15% of Chinese H20 sales to the U.S. government.
The latest development adds another setback for Nvidia. Earlier this week, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia over its acquisition of Israeli networking company Mellanox.
Balancing US and China relations
Despite growing restrictions, Huang emphasized China’s importance to the AI sector. “The Chinese market is important. It’s large. The technology industry is vibrant. We’ve been in service of it for 30 years,” he said. Nvidia, he added, would remain supportive of both U.S. and Chinese authorities as geopolitical tensions unfold.
Huang is currently accompanying President Trump on his state visit to the UK, where Nvidia announced a £11 billion ($15 billion) investment in AI infrastructure. Other U.S. tech giants including Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce also pledged multibillion-dollar investments in the UK’s AI ecosystem this week.
