synopsis

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called US chip export controls to China a failure, saying they boosted China’s domestic AI sector. Nvidia’s China market share halved, as Huawei rose and US-China trade tensions deepened.

According to Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, US export controls on artificial intelligence chips to China were "a failure", reported by Reuters.

"All in all, the export control was a failure," Huang said, adding, "The fundamental assumptions that led to the AI diffusion rule in the beginning, in the first place, has been proven to be fundamentally flawed."

He argued that these controls, based on flawed initial assumptions, have instead pushed Chinese companies to purchase chips from domestic firms like Huawei and spurred China to aggressively build its own independent semiconductor supply chain.

Huang's comments came following China's criticism on Monday urged the United States to "immediately correct its wrongdoings" and stop "discriminatory" measures following the U.S. guidance warning companies not to use advanced computer chips from China, including Huawei's Ascend AI chips.

China's commerce ministry claimed these U.S. actions undermined trade talks and threatened resolute countermeasures. Speaking at Computex in Taipei, Huang also noted that Nvidia's market share in China has significantly decreased from 95% to 50% since the beginning of the Biden administration.

Recently, Foxconn Hon Hai Technology Group joined hands with NVIDIA and the Taiwan government to develop an AI factory supercomputer that will deliver state-of-the-art NVIDIA Blackwell infrastructure, which will help researchers, startups and industries. 

As part of the partnership, Foxconn will be providing AI infrastructure through its subsidiary Big Innovation Company as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner. The infrastructure will feature "10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, the AI factory will significantly expand AI computing availability and fuel innovation for Taiwan researchers and enterprises," according to the press release from NVIDIA.

Despite the sharp criticism of US export controls, Jensen Huang reaffirmed Nvidia’s ongoing role in advancing America’s AI ecosystem. The company remains a critical pillar in the US tech sector, partnering with federal agencies, universities, and private industry to drive AI innovation and infrastructure. Nvidia's leadership in GPU technology keeps it central to the U.S.'s ambitions to stay ahead in the global AI race, even as tensions with China complicate its global market reach.