- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said US and China are close in the AI chip race, with China close behind.
- Nvidia previously said that the Trump administration plans to restrict its chip sales to China.
- Huang said the Trump administration needs to prioritize policies that allow for greater US chip exports.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the US and China are neck and neck in the race for AI chip dominance.
Huang told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday that "China is not behind" the US. And, when asked if China is ahead, Huang clarified, "China is right behind us. We're very, very close."
Nvidia, which produces some of the most expensive and sought-after chips for training and using artificial intelligence models, said in an SEC filing earlier this month that the Trump administration had informed the company that it would be restricting the sale of chips to China by requiring the tech giant to obtain special licenses to continue selling its H20 chips to Chinese customers.
As UBS analysts previously warned, "This is effectively a ban."
And even if the restrictions don't amount to an all-out ban, because the licensing process will probably be an intensive one, analysts expect Nvidia's revenue for its H20 chips to take a hit.
Huang also warned that Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei, which has moved into AI chip production, is becoming a major rival to Nvidia and US chip companies.
"There's no question that Huawei is one of the most formidable technology companies in the world, and they're incredible in computing," Huang told reporters. "They're incredible in networking technology and software capabilities, all of these capabilities to advance AI they have. They've made enormous progress in the last several years."
And in order to stay ahead of that competition, Huang urged the Trump administration to consider policies that not just accelerate the production of chips in the US, but that support the diffusion of those American-made chips around the world.
The Trump administration has not yet formally announced the restrictions on China chip sales that Nvidia first reported in its SEC filing. But, according to Reuters, Trump's team is discussing making the changes that would update Biden's "Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" rule, set to go into effect May 15, so that it could use chip sales as bargaining power over other countries in its trade war.
