Trump praises Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang after discussion about export controls

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Dec 3 he had visited with Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang and said the chip giant executive was aware of where he stood on export controls.

“Smart man,” Mr Trump said about Mr Huang when asked about the meeting. Pressed on whether he had made clear to Mr Huang his views on export controls and the types of chips that the company could give to China, Mr Trump said: “He knows.”

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Mr Huang’s meeting with Mr Trump comes as the administration is considering whether to

allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chips

, which are one generation behind its current flagship chips, to China.

Mr Huang was in the US capital meeting with lawmakers, where he told them that state-by-state US regulations would slow the progress of AI development, he told CNBC.

Nvidia had also

opposed a separate proposed piece of legislation

that would have required it to offer to sell its chips to US customers before obtaining licences to sell those chips to “countries of concern”.

Nvidia had argued the Bill would restrict global competition in AI markets.

Later in the day at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Nvidia is a corporate donor, Mr Huang downplayed concerns that Nvidia’s chips are being smuggled in large volumes to countries where they are banned.

“A GPU for AI data centres, that GPU weighs two tons,” Mr Huang said, referring to the firm’s graphics processing units.

“It has one and a half million parts. It consumes 200,000 watts. It costs US$3 million (S$3.88 million). Every so often somebody says, you know, these GPUs are being smuggled. I really would love to see it - not to mention, you have to smuggle enough of them to fill a football field.” REUTERS