Jensen Huang: "China's AI Technology Is Not Behind the U.S.; Wealthy and Highly Advanced"

Jensen Huang: "China's AI Is Not Lagging Behind the U.S."
"Huawei Is One of the Most Powerful Tech Companies"
"Trump Must Change AI Chip Export Restrictions"

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Nvidia

As the competition for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy between the United States and China intensifies, Jensen Huang, the so-called "AI Emperor" and CEO of Nvidia, issued a warning that "China is not lagging behind the U.S. in the field of AI."

According to Bloomberg and CNBC on April 30 (local time), CEO Huang stated at a tech conference held in Washington, D.C. that "China may be 'right behind' the U.S. at the moment, but the gap is very narrow." He further emphasized, "China is a country with enormous wealth and remarkable technological capabilities. Fifty percent of AI researchers worldwide are Chinese. We must remember that this is a long-term and never-ending competition."

Highlighting that the technological gap with China is not significant, Huang urged that "the regulations restricting U.S. AI chip exports, implemented under the Donald Trump administration, must be changed in order to maintain technological superiority." Although Nvidia holds a 90% share of the cutting-edge AI chip market, it is unable to sell its products to China due to export restrictions. In addition, the Trump administration recently banned the sale of the "H20," a low-performance AI chip developed by Nvidia specifically for China. Nvidia estimated that this measure would result in a loss of approximately $5.5 billion (about 7.9 trillion won).

Huang also specifically singled out Huawei, China's largest telecommunications equipment company, expressing a sense of caution. He described Huawei, which has expanded its business by designing its own AI chips, as "one of the most powerful technology companies in the world," adding, "Huawei possesses remarkable capabilities in computing and networking technologies essential for advancing AI. The company has made tremendous progress over the past few years."

In fact, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on April 28 that "Huawei is developing its own AI chip, the Ascend 910D, which is said to be more powerful than Nvidia's high-performance AI chip, the H100." According to the report, Huawei is currently in contact with Chinese technology companies for performance testing and is expected to unveil its first prototype as early as the end of this month. CEO Huang stressed, "We must compete in this industry," adding, "Government policies should actively support this effort."