Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: US-China break up is 'naive'; world needs you to work it out
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Washington and Beijing to resolve their differences, deeming economic decoupling "naive." He believes the US-China relationship is crucial for global stability, advocating for technological independence alongside economic interdependence. Huang is optimistic about resuming sales of advanced chips in China, a market worth billions, despite geopolitical complexities.
![Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to the US and China: World wants you two to figure out your relationship, the idea that..](https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-126462043,imgsize-34398,width-400,resizemode-4/126462043.jpg "Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Washington and Beijing to resolve their differences, deeming economic decoupling "naive." He believes the US-China relationship is crucial for global stability, advocating for technological independence alongside economic interdependence. Huang is optimistic about resuming sales of advanced chips in China, a market worth billions, despite geopolitical complexities.")
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Washington and Beijing to resolve their differences, deeming economic decoupling "naive." He believes the US-China relationship is crucial for global stability, advocating for technological independence alongside economic interdependence. Huang is optimistic about resuming sales of advanced chips in China, a market worth billions, despite geopolitical complexities.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a blunt message for Washington and Beijing: The world needs you to work things out. Speaking on the "No Priors" podcast this week, Huang dismissed the notion that the world's two largest economies could or should split apart, calling the idea of decoupling "naive" and "not based on any common sense.
"His comments come as Nvidia navigates a complex geopolitical landscape, with the chipmaker caught between US export restrictions and massive Chinese demand for its AI processors. Huang said he's optimistic about President Donald Trump's approach to managing the relationship, describing it as "really grounded" and recognizing China as both an adversary and a partner.
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Nvidia eyes return to China's $50 billion chip market
The stakes are personal for Huang. Nvidia is waiting to resume sales of its advanced H200 chips in China, a market the CEO once estimated could be worth $50 billion annually.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Beijing plans to approve some H200 sales as soon as this quarter, following Trump's December decision to lift a Biden-era ban—though the US government will take a 25% cut of future sales.Huang said Tuesday he isn't expecting any formal announcement from China. "We're not expecting any press releases, or any large declarations," he told reporters at CES in Las Vegas. "It's just going to be purchase orders."
China doubles down on tech independence amid chip restrictions
Huang's call for cooperation comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping strikes a different tone. In his New Year's address, Xi celebrated China's homegrown AI models and chipmaking breakthroughs, emphasizing how trade barriers have fueled domestic innovation. "Many large AI models have been competing in a race to the top, and breakthroughs have been achieved in the research and development of our own chips," Xi said, positioning China as "one of the economies with the fastest-growing innovation capabilities.