Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a blunt message for Washington and Beijing: The world needs you to work things out. Speaking on the “No Priors” podcast this week, Huang dismissed the notion that the world’s two largest economies could or should split apart, calling the idea of decoupling “naive” and “not based on any common sense.“His comments come as Nvidia navigates a complex geopolitical landscape, with the chipmaker caught between US export restrictions and massive Chinese demand for its AI processors. Huang said he’s optimistic about President Donald Trump‘s approach to managing the relationship, describing it as “really grounded” and recognizing China as both an adversary and a partner.
Nvidia eyes return to China’s $50 billion chip market
The stakes are personal for Huang. Nvidia is waiting to resume sales of its advanced H200 chips in China, a market the CEO once estimated could be worth $50 billion annually. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Beijing plans to approve some H200 sales as soon as this quarter, following Trump’s December decision to lift a Biden-era ban—though the US government will take a 25% cut of future sales.Huang said Tuesday he isn’t expecting any formal announcement from China. “We’re not expecting any press releases, or any large declarations,” he told reporters at CES in Las Vegas. “It’s just going to be purchase orders.”
China doubles down on tech independence amid chip restrictions
Huang’s call for cooperation comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping strikes a different tone. In his New Year’s address, Xi celebrated China’s homegrown AI models and chipmaking breakthroughs, emphasizing how trade barriers have fueled domestic innovation. “Many large AI models have been competing in a race to the top, and breakthroughs have been achieved in the research and development of our own chips,” Xi said, positioning China as “one of the economies with the fastest-growing innovation capabilities.“
Jensen Huang says US and China need independence, but they also need each other
Despite his push for access to the Chinese market, Huang acknowledged that both nations should invest in their own technological independence. He compared the US-China dynamic to any relationship where overreliance breeds strain. The more dependent one becomes on another, he warned, the more emotional the relationship will become. He thus called for measured independence, while fully aware of how deeply interdependent the two economies are.Nvidia CEO called the US-China relationship “the single most important relationship for the next century,” arguing that global stability depends on these two powers finding workable common ground. It’s a gingerly balanced position from a CEO whose company needs access to both markets—and who believes both nations can cultivate self-reliance without severing the economic ties that knit them together.
