The AI race between the US and China could be closer than any of us expected, at least according to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
Huang, whose company supplies most of the world with specialized GPUs for AI, was a recent guest on the Bg2 podcast (via Tom's Hardware), where he spoke with the hosts about NVIDIA's ever-changing role in the Chinese AI landscape.
Huang called China "formidable, innovative, fast-moving, and underregulated," before busting a few myths he often hears about the country that poses the largest threat to NVIDIA's AI dominance.
Regarding the myth that China could never build its own AI chips — "That just sounded insane." Regarding the myth that China can't manufacture — "If there's one thing they can do, it's manufacture."
And, perhaps most consequential in the scope of global AI domination, Huang busts the myth that China is years behind the US.
They're years behind us. Is it two years? Three years? Come on. They're nanoseconds behind us. And so we've got to go compete.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
NVIDIA has been a significant part of China's tech market for 35 years, and Huang offers some insights as to how it has so quickly caught up to the US. "Don't forget that China has some of the best STEM schools in the world," says Huang, before mentioning China's culture and how it has shaped the Chinese workforce.
"They're the most hungry in the world," states Huang, referring to China's "9AM until 9PM, 6 days a week" working culture.
China, NVIDIA, and the US — the ever-changing AI landscape
NVIDIA hasn't had an easy time of late getting its AI chips into China.
The company was banned from selling its H20 AI GPUs — essentially nerfed versions of US tech designed specifically to get around Biden-era restrictions — to China in April 2025 by the Trump administration.
After some lobbying by Huang, it was announced in July 2025 that NVIDIA was once again free to sell its H20 GPUs in Chinese markets.
Massive demand caused projected H20 chip shortages just weeks after the ban was lifted, but security concerns from Chinese officials who urged domestic firms not to buy NVIDIA's H20 put a damper on the enthusiasm.
Regardless of China's unofficial stance, NVIDIA still needed to finalize export licenses through the US government.
In an unprecedented move, it was announced in August that NVIDIA and AMD had reached a deal that would see 15% of revenue from AI chip sales to China go back to the US government.
As part of the announcement, President Trump doubled down on his insistence that the H20 isn't competitive.
The H20 is obsolete. [...] So I said, 'Listen, I want 20% if I'm going to approve this for you, for the country.
US President Donald Trump
Security concerns and the ongoing rhetoric surrounding the NVIDIA chips designed specifically for Chinese markets have, of course, muddied the situation.
In September, I reported on the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) banning its top tech companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, from buying and testing NVIDIA's new RTX Pro 6000D AI GPU, another chip tuned down for Chinese markets.
Chinese regulators then announced that it was investigating NVIDIA for antitrust violations related to its acquisition of chip designer Mellanox in 2020.
Huawei's three-year plan to best NVIDIA's AI chips
China's Huawei is leading the way in terms of domestic competition with NVIDIA's AI chips, and the company recently detailed a three-year plan to overtake NVIDIA's dominance in China (via Bloomberg).
Huawei's next generation of Ascend AI chips will operate within a "SuperPod" design, which will allow for up to 15,488 chips to be linked together using new "UnifiedBus" technology.
Huawei claims that this tech is up to 62 times faster than NVIDIA's next NVLink144 solution. NVIDIA's current NVLink72 tech can connect up to 72 Blackwell GPUs and 32 Grace CPUs, so it seems clear that Huawei is going for victory through massive numbers rather than finesse.
With these Huawei chips designed from the start for China's AI software stack, NVIDIA must be feeling the heat as it attempts to claw back what was once a 95% market share.
Regardless, NVIDIA's CEO remains unfazed by China's growing AI competition, and in fact seems to encourage its growth.
We have a competitive relationship with China. We should acknowledge that China, rightfully, should want their companies to do well. I don't for a second begrudge them for that. They should do well. They should give them as much support as they like. It's all their prerogative.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO
In the Bg2 interview, Huang also expresses some frustration with the current rules and regulations affecting NVIDIA's ability to compete around the world. Speaking in terms of the tech industry as a whole, Huang says:
We have to acknowledge it is our national treasure. It is our best industry. It is our single best industry. Why would we not allow this industry to go compete for its survival? For this industry to go and proliferate the technology around the world, so that we could have the world built on top of American technology.
NVIDIA, of course, only stands to gain from a stable partnership with China, and this isn't the first time that Huang has expressed these same sentiments.
While NVIDIA continues to hold sway with Chinese AI firms for now, Huawei's progress over the next three years will certainly be interesting to watch.
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