NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says the company now has 0% market share in China

With strict restrictions on what US-based hardware can be sold in China for GPUs and other AI-related technologies, the direct result, according to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, is that the company's market share in the region has dropped to zero.

2

"In China, we have now dropped to zero," Jensen Huang said in a recent interview with the Special Competitive Studies Project. Naturally, with the boom in AI accelerator and data center equipment sales, a lot of money and market share are being left on the table. And yeah, Jensen Huang isn't happy with the situation, adding that it doesn't make "strategic sense" and that it has "already backfired" as Chinese-based technologies fill the void.

"Conceding an entire market the size of China probably does not make a lot of strategic sense, so I think that has already largely backfired," Jensen Huang continues. "Maybe it made sense at the time, but I think the policy really needs to be dynamic and needs to stay with the times. I think it would be fairly safe to say that having American chip companies and other companies in China makes a lot of sense."

Now, this isn't to say there aren't any NVIDIA GPUs in China being used for AI; the "zero" here refers to NVIDIA's direct sales to Chinese companies. Jensen Huang's argument that NVIDIA hardware should be available in China extends to software, CUDA, and other layers. And with these restrictions, China's AI endeavors are not only flourishing but are quickly becoming self-sufficient and competitive.

"The argument there is that across the five-layer cake, there's one particular layer that is too important because in the others, China can get ahead," Jensen Huang continues. "They have cheaper energy. They have incredible talent. So, they have a number of science and math experts, and as a result of that, the number of AI researchers in China is quite extraordinary, it's one of their national treasures."

You can watch the full interview below.