CNBC’s Jim Cramer said: Nvidia China should be allowed to sell artificial intelligence chips, arguing that it is in America’s best interests to remain dependent on American technology rather than forcing Chinese companies to develop competing products.
“If we force them to make their own chips, they will catch up and surpass us with seemingly unlimited power,” the “Mad Money” host said Thursday, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was in China with President Donald Trump for a high-stakes diplomatic summit.
Nvidia’s ability to sell advanced AI chips to China has been limited for years due to export restrictions introduced under the Biden administration for national security reasons. Investors are increasingly focused on whether NVIDIA can resume meaningful sales to the world’s second-largest economy, especially after the company indicated earlier this year that approval remained uncertain.
“Although a small number of H200 products have been approved by the U.S. government for customers based in China, we are not yet profitable and we do not know if they will be allowed to be imported into China,” NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress said during the company’s February earnings call.
But in March, CEO Jensen Huang struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters at NVIDIA’s GTC conference that the company had received purchase orders and was restarting manufacturing.
“We have received orders and are restarting production,” Huang said. “It’s different than it was two weeks ago or three weeks ago, but that’s where we are today… and our supply chain is activated.”
Nvidia is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday, and investors will be watching for updates on the company’s China operations, especially in light of Huang’s participation in the summit with President Trump. Nvidia’s official financial guidance assumes no revenue from China.
For now, Kramer said he believes key decisions rest with China rather than the U.S. government. He argued that Mr. Xi faces a difficult choice: allow companies to buy modified Nvidia chips and risk deepening dependence on American technology, or encourage domestic companies to accelerate their own development.
Still, Cramer said Nvidia remains attractive regardless of China because of its dominant position in artificial intelligence and its relatively cheap valuation compared to its peers. This is especially true when evaluating Nvidia against the newly released Cerebras.
“Without Jensen Huang and Nvidia, the AI revolution would not exist,” he said. “You buy Nvidia not because of China, not because of the Cerebras IPO, but because it’s actually a cheap stock.”
