Amid rising tensions between the United States and China, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang made an unexpected visit to Beijing this week. The visit came just a day after the US government said it will now require a licence for Nvidia to export its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China, a move the company expects will result in a loss of US$5.5 billion.
Huang’s trip takes place as Beijing and Washington continue a tariff war, with major technology firms caught in the middle. Nvidia has emerged as one of the US tech companies most affected by the dispute. Huang had met US President Donald Trump over dinner about a week earlier. According to posts shared by a state broadcaster affiliated account, Huang arrived in Beijing on Thursday at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a state backed organisation that represents Chinese exporters.
During the visit, Huang met Ren Hongbin, chairman of the council and said he hoped Nvidia could continue working with China, calling it a “key market” for the company. “We regularly meet with government leaders to discuss our company’s products and technology,” an Nvidia spokesperson said. Nvidia shares dropped 6.9% in the US on Wednesday following the disclosure of the new H20 export restrictions. A photo from the meeting showed Ren seated with several officials, while Huang sat alone opposite them, with two seats reserved for senior Nvidia executives, though it was unclear if they attended.
According to a readout shared by the state broadcaster, Huang said Nvidia would “spare no effort” to adjust its products to meet regulatory requirements and would “unswervingly serve the Chinese market”, signalling possible development of new China specific chips. Reports also said Huang met Liang Wenfeng, founder of Chinese AI start up DeepSeek, to discuss the AI chip sector. The H20 chip was designed for China after earlier US export controls and analysts warn the new ban could hurt Chinese technology firms that depend on these chips for large language models. Nvidia’s China revenue, which was about 10% last year, is expected to fall close to zero, according to analysts, with no near term recovery in sight.
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