Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says US AI chip export controls a ‘failure’

TAIPEI – Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said on May 21 that US export controls on artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China had failed, with companies using locally developed cutting-edge technology.

Mr Huang said Nvidia’s share of China’s AI chip market had fallen to 50 per cent from nearly 95 per cent at the beginning of former president Joe Biden’s administration.

“The local companies are very, very talented and very determined, and the export control gave them the spirit, the energy and the government support to accelerate their development,” Mr Huang told reporters at Taiwan’s top tech show Computex.

“I think, all in all, the export control was a failure,” he said, noting that companies would use the “second-best” option if they could not get Nvidia’s chips.

Washington has sought in recent years to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, concerned that they could be used to advance Beijing’s military systems and otherwise undermine American dominance in AI.

US President Donald Trump’s administration last week rescinded some controls, answering calls by countries that said they were being shut out from crucial technology needed to develop AI.

Some US lawmakers feared the restrictions would have incentivised countries to go to China for AI chips, spurring the superpower’s development of state-of-the-art technology.

Nvidia and other chipmakers had lobbied against the curbs.

Mr Huang said Nvidia had written off “multiple billions of dollars” due to the export controls.

He said China’s AI market would be worth US$50 billion (S$64.6 billion) in 2026, adding that “it would be a shame not to be able to enjoy that opportunity, bring home tax revenues to (the) United States, create jobs, sustain the industry”.

He added: “China has a vibrant technology ecosystem, and it’s very important to realise that China has 50 per cent of the world’s AI researchers, and China is incredibly good at software.”

Mr Huang also praised China-based DeepSeek, saying it had been positive for AI infrastructure and “increased the amount of computing need by maybe 100 to 1,000 times”. He added: “That’s the reason why all over the world, the AI companies are saying their GPUs (graphics processing units) are melting down.”

DeepSeek shook up the world of generative AI with the debut of a low-cost, high-performance model that challenges the hegemony of OpenAI and other big-spending behemoths.

Several countries have questioned DeepSeek’s handling of data and believe that the secretive company may be subject to the control of the Chinese government. AFP