[HONG KONG] Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang arrived in Beijing on Thursday (Apr 17), shortly after the Trump administration barred the company from selling H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chip to China.
Huang, a frequent visitor to the country, showed up in the capital at the invitation of a domestic trade group, according to a social media account affiliated with state-run China Central Television (CCTV). In a video posted to the account, the CEO had ditched his trademark black leather jacket for a suit and tie, though it was unclear what event he was attending.
The timing of his trip however was unusual, given the CEO dined with US President Donald Trump about a week ago – only to warn of a US$5.5 billion writedown from the AI chip restrictions days later. Those curbs marked an escalation of Washington’s tech battle with Beijing, and hamstrung a product line Nvidia explicitly designed for Chinese customers, to comply with previous US export controls.
Shortly after the news surfaced, a bipartisan US House committee urged Nvidia to hand over information on sales of chips that Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek may have used to develop its breakthrough chatbot.
China remained a very important market for Nvidia, which will optimise its chip products to comply with US export controls, Huang told the head of the trade group, according to CCTV.
Huang met with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng on Thursday evening, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. He told Huang that China welcomes more US companies including Nvidia to deepen their presence in the Chinese market.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Huang expressed optimism about China’s economic outlook and affirmed Nvidia’s commitment to exploring the local market and playing an active role in promoting the US-China economic and trade cooperation.
The CEO also met with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified sources. An Nvidia representative declined to comment.
Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has pledged to be “very strong” on China chip curbs – particularly after the emergence of AI startup DeepSeek. He recently sanctioned dozens of Chinese firms that Trump officials allege are aiding Beijing’s military efforts.
In the Asian country’s chipmaking arena, Huawei Technologies’ AI accelerators are the closest competitor to Nvidia’s and Advanced Micro Devices’ offerings, though they still lag significantly in terms of performance. BLOOMBERG
