A pair of US Senators, hailing from both the Republican and Democratic parties, recently sent a letter to Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, regarding his upcoming trip to China. The letter was essentially a warning to the CEO of the company that had a US$4 trillion (~RM17 trillion) valuation, so as not to meet with companies there that are suspected of subverting US chip export controls.
The letter, signed by Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, also asked the NVIDIA CEO to refrain from meeting with individuals that are directly working with China’s military and intelligence bodies. “We are worried that your trip to the PRC could legitimise companies that cooperate closely with the Chinese military or involve discussing exploitable gaps in U.S. export controls.”
NVIDIA has pretty much been at the forefront of the ongoing US-China trade war. Just before Trump’s second term, the previous Biden administration put in a bill that banned US companies such as NVIDIA and its GPUs, out of fear that the companies in China were using US hardware to further their AI ambitions.
Huang seems to believe differently, and that the ongoing restriction would set a new precedent, forcing Chinese companies such as Huawei to advance its own AI endeavours, and ultimately lead to becoming a dominant force in the realm of AI. During a Q&A at Computex this year, Huang said that the US trade restrictions had hurt the GPU brand’s market value in the country. He claimed that his company went from a 95% market share to 50% in just a year.
“American wins” when its technology sets “the global standard,” and that China has one of the largest bodies of software developers in the world. AI software “should run best on the U.S. technology stack, encouraging nations worldwide to choose America,” an NVIDIA spokesperson said.
(Source: Reuters)
