Keystone-SDA
The boss of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, assured Wednesday that his business was “best” to meet the needs of the Chinese market. The American semiconductor manufacturer intends to provide certain components, despite Washington restrictions.
(Keystone-ATS) Nvidia became the first company last week to exceed $ 4,000 billion in market capitalization, showing how the markets are betting on artificial intelligence (AI), revolutionizing the global economy.
The market value of the American group now exceeds country GDP like France, the United Kingdom or India-a strong signal of investors’ confidence in the potential of AI to inaugurate a new era of automation and robotics.
But Nvidia is also at the heart of the hard fight between Washington and Beijing for Supremacy in the field of semiconductors, essential for the manufacture of smartphones, wind turbines, military equipment and countless strategic products.
NVIDIA announced on Tuesday the upcoming resumption of the sale in China of its H20 artificial intelligence chips, after Washington is committed to lifting the license restrictions that blocked their export.
Jensen Huang is in the Chinese capital to participate in the International Exhibition of China supply chains. A fair presented by Beijing as a showcase of his commitment to free trade against Donald Trump and his trade war.
Special chip
In front of the press, the charismatic boss of Nvidia, black t-shirt on the back, said that senior Chinese officials, including Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng, had assured that China was “open and stable”.
“We have mentioned (…) the fact that China welcomes foreign companies wishing to invest and set up there,” he said.
“They want to know that Nvidia continues to invest here, that we always do our best to meet the needs of the market here,” said Huang.
On Wednesday morning at the opening of the show, Jensen Huang welcomed the pioneering role of China in AI.
“The Chinese Open Source is a catalyst for global progress, allowing each country and each sector to join the Revolution brought by AI,” he said.
He notably referred to the Deepseek conversational robot, deemed to be able to compete with his American equivalents.
Based in California, Nvidia produces some of the most advanced semiconductors in the world, but cannot export its most sophisticated chips in China. Washington forbids it, invoking the risk that Beijing would use them to strengthen its military capacities.
Nvidia has designed the H20 chip-a less powerful version of its semiconductors for AI-specifically for export to China. However, the project was blocked by the Trump administration when it had strengthened its export licenses in April.
“Nothing to do”
But after a new request, “the American government assured Nvidia that the licenses would be granted and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
This announcement boosted technological values, especially at Nasdaq.
Asked Wednesday about his possible attempts, before his departure for China, to convince Donald Trump to lift his restrictions on semiconductors, Jensen Huang replied: “I do not think I have changed his point of view. »»
“My role is to inform the president about what I know well, namely the technology sector and artificial intelligence,” he told journalists.
“This is a unique opportunity for the United States to take leadership in the field of artificial intelligence,” he noted.
He stressed that current discussions between Chinese and American governments had “nothing to do with him”.
US restrictions are involved in a difficult economic context for China, faced with low household consumption and a prolonged crisis in the real estate sector.
Faced with growing international uncertainties, Chinese President Xi Jinping regularly calls for strengthening technological self -sufficiency.
