In an interview with CNBC following the release of NVIDIA’s first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, stated that the company has ‘largely given up’ on the Chinese AI chip market, effectively ceding it to Huawei. He remarked, ‘The demand in China is enormous; Huawei is very, very strong.’ When asked about any prospects of returning to China, Huang expressed ‘no expectations whatsoever’ and advised investors to ‘not hold any expectations’ regarding export license approvals. Nevertheless, he added that should conditions permit, NVIDIA would ‘be more than happy’ to re-enter this market, given its nearly three-decade presence there.
Earlier this month, the U.S. government authorized NVIDIA to sell its H200 chips to ten Chinese tech firms, including Alibaba and Tencent. However, deliveries reportedly stalled due to intervention from Beijing. Previously, China accounted for over one-fifth of NVIDIA’s data center revenue. Meanwhile, Huawei’s Ascend 950PR chip is swiftly filling this void; projections indicate its AI chip sales will surge over 60% year-on-year in 2026, reaching roughly $12 billion. Morgan Stanley forecasts that by 2030, domestic Chinese firms will command 86% of this market.