AI chip war: Nvidia blames US export controls for losses; states China gained instead
Nvidia claims US export controls are harming American interests, citing reports of China limiting access to its AI chips. The company stated that overbroad controls have fueled foreign competitors and cost US taxpayers billions. Nvidia continues to work with the administration on H200 licenses for vetted customers.
Nvidia
Nvidia has a message for Americans: US export control is hurting you all. The company said this in a statement to the comment of White House AI czar David Sacks. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks said in an interview on Bloomberg Tech, citing an unspecified news article he had seen that day.
“Apparently they don’t want them, and I think the reason for that is they want semiconductor independence.” Later in a social media post, Sacks said that he was referring to a Financial Times report that China was poised to limit access to the chips via a local approval process where Chinese buyers would need to justify their purchases. "This is the report I was citing. It would be more accurate to attribute this news to FT than to me."Responding to David Sacks comments and the report an Nvidia spokesperson said that the company continues to work with the administration on H200 licenses for vetted customers. “While we do not yet have results to report, it’s clear that three years of overbroad export controls fueled America’s foreign competitors and cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,” the company said.
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Quoting sources in China, the Financial Times report claimed that regulators in Beijing have been discussing ways to permit limited access to the H200, Nvidia’s second-best generation of artificial intelligence chips.
It further added that buyers would probably be required to go through an approval process, submitting requests to purchase the chips and explaining why domestic providers were unable to meet their needs.
The people added that no final decision had been made yet.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on 'China ban'
This is not the first time that Nvidia has expressed disappointment in China rejecting its chips. In September this year too, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang weighed in on the US tech giant’s struggles in China after a report claimed that the country has banned its AI chips.
Huang said that he was “disappointed” after reports that the Cyberspace Administration of China had ordered companies including TikTok parent company ByteDance and Alibaba not to buy Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, an Nvidia chip that was made for China.
In response to a question, Huang said that “we can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be.”Nvidia CEO Huang has been lobbying with the US government for the ban to be lifted as China has used the ban to push domestic chipmakers to make products to compete with Nvidia.