Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang has sharply criticised US export restrictions that have effectively eliminated the company’s presence in China, saying the policy has caused America to lose one of its largest markets.
“We went from 95% market share to 0%,” Huang said at the Citadel Securities Future of Global Markets 2025 event in New York on October 6 and the video of the same interview was published on earlier on Wednesday. “I can’t imagine any policymaker thinking that’s a good idea—that whatever policy we implemented caused America to lose one of the largest markets in the world to zero.”
Huang said Nvidia’s financial forecasts now assume “zero” revenue from China. “In all of our forecasts, if there are any shareholders out there, we’re assuming zero for China. If anything happens in China—which I hope it will—it’ll be a bonus,” he said.
He noted that China remains “the second-largest computer market in the world” and “a vibrant ecosystem,” warning that cutting off access will harm both nations. “I think it’s a mistake for the United States not to participate,” he said.
Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, including the A100, H100 and H200, have been banned from export to China since 2022. While the company obtained permission to sell a lower-end H20 chip tailored for the market, Beijing has raised security concerns over the product.
Huang reiterated that excluding Nvidia from China benefits Chinese rivals like Huawei Technologies and risks damaging America’s own tech leadership. “What harms China could often times also harm America, and even worse,” he said.
He also stressed China’s importance to global innovation: “The developers are vitally important for any software industry, and China has about 50 per cent of the world’s AI researchers. It’s a mistake not to have those researchers build AI on American technology.”
“Hopefully, we will continue to explain and inform and hold on to hope for a change in policy,” Huang added.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang earlier also said he was disappointed by a report that Beijing has barred major Chinese tech companies from buying his company's world-leading chips, a crucial component in the generative AI revolution.
Nvidia's specially designed chips have catapulted the company to become the world's biggest by market capitalisation, with China seen as a crucial market.
But geopolitical tensions between the United States and China have seen Nvidia caught up in relations between the superpowers.
Washington restricts Nvidia from exporting its most advanced products to China and last month confirmed the company would pay the US government 15 percent of revenue from certain AI chip sales in the country.
Beijing has responded by expressing national security concerns about Nvidia chips and urging Chinese businesses to rely on local semiconductor suppliers instead.
"We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be," Huang said at a press briefing in London, responding to a question about the FT report.
"I'm disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States. And I'm patient about it. We'll continue to be supportive of the Chinese government and Chinese companies as they wish."
According to the FT, citing unnamed sources, the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered companies to end all testing and purchase plans for Nvidia's restricted chips.
The ban would follow a decision by Chinese regulators on Monday finding that Nvidia had run afoul of the country's antitrust rules.
Observers believe that Beijing's moves to wean Chinese tech companies off Nvidia's offerings are part of its effort to accelerate domestic production from companies like Huawei.
*With Agency Inputs
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