Nvidia CEO Jensen Hwang listens to questions from reporters during a press conference at the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea on October 31, 2025.
Ezra Akayan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang disagrees with national security concerns about selling his company’s cutting-edge semiconductors to China, insisting that cooperation is in everyone’s best interest.
Hwang told reporters in South Korea that he will continue to campaign for access to the Chinese market and is “optimistic” that the country will continue to seek American chips as it establishes itself as a leader in AI.
“The idea about the Chinese market is that it is a unique, essential, important, dynamic market, and no one can replace it,” he said.
“It’s in America’s best interest to serve the Chinese market. It’s in China’s best interest for American technology companies to bring technology into the Chinese market… It’s in both countries’ best interests, and I hope that policymakers ultimately reach that conclusion.”
His comments came amid U.S. export restrictions restricting Chinese companies’ purchases of advanced semiconductors used in AI development.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed exporting Nvidia chips during a summit, but the discussion did not include cutting-edge Blackwell graphics processing equipment. After the meeting, President Trump said, “I said it’s actually a problem between (China) and Nvidia, but we’re kind of the mediator, so to speak.”
The US said the chip regulations are aimed at restricting China’s “access to advanced chip manufacturing technologies and capabilities” and restricting access to “related computing and AI applications.”
But Huang suggested these concerns were misplaced.
“China makes a lot of its own AI chips, and the Chinese military certainly has plenty of access to chips that are made in China. So whatever the national security concerns are, you have to take into account the fact that China is blocking the H20 (NVIDIA chip) and in many ways China is saying, ‘Listen, we have a wealth of AI technology,'” Huang told CNBC’s Eunice Yun on Friday.
“From that perspective, I think the national security concerns are actually answered by the fact that China doesn’t want H20 or U.S. chips.”
“It would be foolish to underestimate Huawei.”
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is also at the center of technology tensions between the United States and China.
In the United States, Huawei products are prohibited from being used by the federal government due to concerns that they could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, and American companies are also restricted from doing business with the company. The ban went into effect during President Trump’s first term.
Huang said Nvidia is “miles and miles ahead” in the chip race, but said it would be “foolish to underestimate China’s power and Huawei’s incredible competitive spirit.”
“This is a company with extraordinary technology. They dominate the world’s 5G communications standards and technology. They make great smartphones, they make great chips, and they’re incredibly good at networking. So when they announced CloudMatrix, I wasn’t surprised that they were able to make something so great,” Fan said, referring to Huawei’s large-scale AI supercomputing system.
“It’s very ignorant to think that Huawei can’t build a system. We take competition very seriously. We respect competition and deeply respect China’s capabilities. That’s why we’re going so fast, and that’s why we’re focused on inventing the future and getting there before anyone else,” he added.
—CNBC’s Eunice Yoon, Spencer Kimball and Arjun Karpal contributed reporting.
