Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says Washington has lost its edge in artificial intelligence and warns that China will win the AI race. He cited the West's cynicism, export controls, and favorable energy circumstances in China as the reason, claiming it is much easier for companies to access energy in the country.
The chief of the most valuable company in the world by market cap has long been saying that the U.S. ban on chip exports is a failure, and that the spread of its advanced semiconductors is vital for it to retain its competitive advantage globally. However, the ongoing trade war between the two powers has resulted in export bans of Blackwell chips from the White House on the one hand, and the CCP banning foreign AI chips from state-funded data centers on the other. Because of this, Nvidia’s market share in China has since dropped to basically zero, which probably led to Huang’s statement to the Financial Times.
“China is going to win the AI race,” Jensen commented. He also added that “we need more optimism,” saying that the West’s cynicism is holding it back. Huang released a statement on Nvidia’s X account a few hours after FT published his words. “As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in AI. It’s vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide.” The Nvidia CEO previously mentioned this in late September on a podcast, leaning on his stance that he’s been preaching for over a year that export restrictions on his company’s AI chips are detrimental to the U.S.’s long-term interests.
A statement from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. pic.twitter.com/Exwx54OYJVNovember 5, 2025
Huang argues that if China loses access to Nvidia’s latest AI GPUs, its tech companies will be forced to purchase homegrown alternatives, which will pour money into its chip makers and further drive research, development, and innovations in the local semiconductor industry. Aside from that, it will also reduce these companies’ dependence on Nvidia’s software ecosystem, making it easier for them to migrate to a Chinese AI processor. On the other hand, other industry leaders contend that the U.S. is heavily dependent on China and that it’s only using Nvidia’s products as a stopgap until it builds a credible competitor to the AI chip powerhouse. The comments come just days after the administration hinted that China could have access to Nvidia Blackwell chips, but only once they are out of date.
Aside from export controls, Nvidia’s top executive also highlighted China’s approach to energy subsidies that make it easier for companies to put up power-hungry data centers, versus the hodgepodge of rules the different States in the U.S. are pushing on AI, potentially resulting in “50 new regulations.” Experts have been saying that electricity generation is the next bottleneck that the AI industry must solve, and it seems that Beijing is miles ahead, as it has already addressed the energy problem for its AI infrastructure. On the other hand, American tech companies are still investing in alternative power sources like small modular reactors and space-based data centers, which will take years to materialize, if at all. Recently, Microsoft revealed it has GPUs it simply can't plug in because it doesn't have the energy required.
The status of the AI race between the two global rivals isn’t clear, especially as politics and protectionism are muddying the waters. Aside from that, both sides' arguments for and against China getting access to Nvidia’s AI GPUs have merit, meaning we will probably only truly see who is right years down the line. But one thing is clear in all of this — Nvidia will get a massive advantage if it supplies the chips that both sides use in the AI race.
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