Washington’s chip controls are denying U.S. companies like Nvidia access to a huge and growing AI chip market in China, CEO Jensen Huang said Tuesday, weeks after the chipmaker admitted it’d take a $5.5 billion hit from blocked sales to the world’s second-largest economy.
“China is a very large market. It’s probably going to be a $50 billion market in the next couple or three years. It’ll be a tremendous loss not to address it as an American company,” Huang said in an interview with CNBC. He added that access to the Chinese AI market would create jobs in the U.S.
Huang has long spoken positively about China and its AI sector, calling it a “key market” for Nvidia in mid-April during a surprise visit to the country. He’s also warned that shutting out the country could hurt the interests of both the U.S. and Nvidia by encouraging “strategic competitors” like Huawei.
Nvidia recently revealed that it would take a $5.5 billion charge after the U.S. decided to bar the chipmaker from selling its H20 chip to China without a license. (Nvidia designed the H20 chip to comply with previous U.S. export controls).
On Tuesday, AMD revealed that it will also take a $1.5 billion hit to revenue from updated U.S. controls. Like Nvidia, AMD also makes graphics processing units (GPUs) that are key to powering AI applications.
Washington first imposed broad export controls on China in October 2022, and has steadily closed loopholes in its sanctions regime in subsequent years. The rules go beyond Nvidia and AMD to also affect the manufacturers that produce the tools used to make chips.
U.S. companies like Nvidia may want to keep access to the huge Chinese market, but they may also be worried about growing competition from local players like Huawei. Huang has previously warned that China is not far behind the U.S. in AI competition.
A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington D.C.-based think-tank, released in March said China had “narrowed” the AI gap with the U.S. and that it was unrealistic to expect a lead of more than two years.
China has spent years investing billions into its local semiconductor industry in an attempt to wean itself off of foreign-made chips and chipmaking equipment. Beijing is also encouraging companies to use domestically-made chips where possible.
Over the weekend, the Financial Times reported that Huawei is building a production line for advanced chips, part of a broader effort to move the entire AI chip chain into China. Huawei is also reportedly gearing up to test its latest Ascend series chip, a competitor to Nvidia’s products.
