Attempts by the US government to put a cap on China’s development of AI technologies by limiting exports of GPUs has been a “failure”. So says no less an authority on the subject than Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang.
The New York Times quotes Huang at the ongoing Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan denouncing GPU export controls. “AI researchers are still doing AI research in China,” Huang said on Wednesday. “If they don’t have enough Nvidia, they will use their own,” he said. All of which means, “the export control was a failure.”
He may have a point. But then Nvidia does rather have a dog in this fight. Huang himself says that restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 GPU will cost the company $15 billion in sales. So, it’s not hard to understand why he might prefer those limitations to be lifted.
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Just for context, back in 2022 the former Biden administration imposed limits on the export of the most powerful GPUs from the US into China. Into the void left by restricted Nvidia exports has moved local outfit Huawei, whose GPUs currently do not match those of Nvidia for AI prowess. However, the fear is that the GPU export restrictions have only encouraged Huawei to put even more effort into closing the gap.
Indeed, according to the New York Times, Nvidia is concerned about just that, with an adjacent worry that, “any advantage gained by Huawei in China could eventually spread into other markets, helping Huawei build a stronger foundation from which to compete around the world.”
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Meanwhile, it’s a little difficult to gauge Jensen Huang’s strategy and loyalties in all this. He recently appeared with other business leaders as a guest of the Trump administration in Saudi Arabia. But Nvidia has also just unveiled what will be a new Global headquarters in Taiwan, which doesn’t entirely square with the broader push to reshore tech manufacturing to the US.
Likewise, the New York Times reports that, “the day after the US government opened an investigation into whether Nvidia’s previous sales to China had violated its rules, Mr. Huang met with top economic and trade officials in Beijing.”
The plot, as they say, thickens. At the very least, it seems Huang and Nvidia are keeping their options fully open.
