Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a blunt assessment: "China is going to win the AI race."
Huang made the comment to the Financial Times on the sidelines of the FT's Future of AI Summit Wednesday. He added: "It's vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide."
The remarks put Huang at odds with current US policy restricting advanced chip sales to China.
Huang has consistently argued the US needs China's massive developer base to maintain AI leadership. In October, he said America can win the AI battle if the world - including Chinese developers - runs on Nvidia systems.
At Nvidia's developer conference in Washington last month, Huang laid out his position clearly: "We want America to win this AI race. No doubt about that. We want the world to be built on American tech stack. Absolutely the case."
But then came the caveat: "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 in the long term, it hurts us more."
President Trump directly contradicted Huang's position. In a Sunday interview, Trump said Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chips should be reserved exclusively for American customers.
"We will let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced" semiconductors, Trump added.
China's access to advanced AI chips - particularly from Nvidia, the world's most valuable company by market cap - remains a major flashpoint in US-China tech rivalry.
Nvidia hasn't applied for US export licenses to sell Blackwell chips in China. Huang previously cited Beijing's stance toward the company as the reason.
The Chinese government has effectively shut Nvidia out of its market through restrictions and support for domestic alternatives.
Huang is warning that US export restrictions on China could backfire by cutting American companies off from half the world's AI developers, even as Trump insists the most advanced chips stay exclusively in America. The Nvidia CEO's comments highlight the tension between national security concerns and his company's business interests in maintaining global reach.
