Nvidia's Jensen Huang courts China: Calls local AI models "World Class" as chip giant resumes sales

Nvidia's Jensen Huang courts China: Calls local AI models "World Class" as chip giant resumes sales

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wasted no time capitalizing on the recent lifting of export restrictions, making his third trip to China this year in what appeared to be a calculated charm offensive to woo back one of the chip giant's most crucial markets.

Speaking as the guest of honor during the opening ceremony of the China International Supply Chain Expo on Wednesday, Huang acknowledged Chinese tech firms' "world-class" AI models while announcing the resumption of chip sales to the world's second-largest technology market.

"H20 was released from its ban, the memory bandwidth is extremely good, for LLMs and other new models it will be excellent," Huang declared at the Beijing event.

The world's most valuable company is now set to ramp up supply of its Chinese-compliant H20 chips in the coming months, marking a notable shift from the export restriction imposed in April over US national security concerns.

According to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, this move was part of negotiations on rare earths. Beyond the business announcements, Huang was effusive in his praise for China's AI development ecosystem.

He described AI models from Chinese firms DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Tencent as having been "developed here and shared openly" and credited them with spurring AI developments worldwide.

China's open-source AI was a "catalyst for global progress" that was "giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution," Huang said, switching between English and halting Mandarin during his presentation.

His comments came as Nvidia seemingly shrugged aside the 17% plunge in its valuation in late January after DeepSeek's rollout opened up the possibility that LLMs could be developed at a fraction of the typical cost.

New chip tailored for Chinese market

Looking ahead, Nvidia announced development of a new chip specifically for Chinese clients called the RTX Pro GPU, which will also comply with US export restrictions. Huang said the new chip would be designed specifically for smart factories and robot training purposes.

"Here in China, because there's so much robotics innovation going on, and so much smart factory work being done here, and the supply chain is so vast, RTX Pro is perfect," Huang explained.

Meanwhile, the resumption of H20 sales comes with regulatory requirements that Huang appeared confident about navigating. He told the media on the sidelines of the supply chain expo that licenses for Chinese orders would be approved swiftly, noting: "There are many order books already in."

Orders from Chinese companies for H20 chips need to be sent by Nvidia to the US government for approval. Sources indicate that internet giants ByteDance and Tencent were in the process of submitting applications, though ByteDance denied it was submitting applications while Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

However, Tencent later confirmed it was in the process of applying to buy Nvidia chips.

Strategic stakes and future outlook

Huang's visit comes as Nvidia walks a tightrope between the world's two biggest economies, both vying for dominance in AI and other cutting-edge technologies. His comments came days after he met with US President Donald Trump, highlighting the delicate balance the chip giant must maintain.

The CEO has previously warned that Nvidia's leadership position could slip without sales to China, where developers were being courted by Huawei Technologies with chips produced domestically. The resumption of sales represents a significant opportunity for Nvidia as the world's first US$4 trillion company gains access to one of the largest investors in AI, where funding could grow 48% this year to US$98 billion, according to Bank of America forecasts.

Huang also stressed Nvidia's deep integration with Chinese tech development, noting that more than 1.5 million developers in China were building on Nvidia platforms. Looking ahead, he shared an optimistic outlook for AI's role in manufacturing, predicting that the world's most advanced factories will be powered by robots and AI within a decade.

"Today, AI is fundamental infrastructure, like electricity and the internet before, AI is revolutionizing the supply chain, changing how we build and move things," Huang said, adding that "hundreds of projects in China are simulating digital twins in Nvidia's omniverse to design and optimize factories and warehouses."