Is America Losing the AI Race? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Thinks So

China’s AI Revolution Is Happening — Says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

May 30, 2025 — Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang recently shared some eye-opening thoughts on the rapidly evolving AI race between the US and China. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Jensen Huangsaid that Chinese AI companies, especially Huawei, are growing stronger and closing the gap with American technology — even though US export restrictions have tried to hold them back.

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Jensen Huang explained that the trade rules imposed by the US have cut Nvidia off from China’s huge chip market, leading to an expected loss of about $8 billion in sales this quarter alone. Despite this, Chinese firms aren’t standing still. “The Chinese competitors have evolved,” Huang said. “Huawei has become quite formidable.”

The restrictions, including a tough AI diffusion rule introduced by the Biden administration, were meant to limit China’s access to advanced tech. But instead of stopping progress, these rules have pushed Chinese companies to develop their own alternatives. Major buyers like Tencent and others have naturally shifted toward Huawei since they can’t rely on US suppliers anymore.

“They’re doubling and quadrupling their capabilities every year, and the volume is growing a lot,” Jensen Huang noted.

One of the most striking points Nvidia CEO made is how close the performance of Huawei’s latest AI chip has come to Nvidia’s own H200 chip — once the pinnacle of AI hardware. In fact, the gap is shrinking fast.

Adding to the challenge, Nvidia isn’t even allowed to export the H20 chip, a slightly scaled-back version of the H200, to China without a license. This has made it difficult for Nvidia to keep up with demand from Chinese customers.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of the China market,” Huang said, pointing out that China is home to the world’s largest community of AI researchers. He called for global collaboration, encouraging AI developers everywhere to have access to American technology. “No matter how our short-term sales look, the Chinese market matters a lot,” he added.