NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang: we will adhere 'perfectly' to latest US rules on AI GPUs into China

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang spoke with reporters in Singapore on Wednesday, talking about their dominant position in the AI market with increasing AI GPU competition, as well as saying it'll comply with new US regulations.

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China has a booming AI chip market that is worth $7 billion, and NVIDIA takes a dominating 90% share of that AI chip market, which is why the recent US sanctions are going to change that. The new US sanctions also create an opportunity for Chinese rivals to boost their own AI chip foothold while NVIDIA creates alternate AI GPU solutions.

Huang spoke with reporters while he was in Singapore on Wednesday, where he is meeting up with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to talk about all things AI. Huang said: "NVIDIA has been working very closely with the U.S. government to create products that comply with its regulations. Our plan now is to continue to work with the government to come up with a new set of products that comply with the new regulations that have certain limits".

The company is aware of its competitors in the likes of AMD, Intel, Huawei, and others in the AI GPU market, with Huang specifically bringing up Huawei. The NVIDIA founder said to a reporter: "We have a lot of competitors, in China and outside China. Most of our competitors don't really care where I am. They want to compete with us everywhere we go".

Huang said that China-based Huawei was a "formidable" competitor in the AI GPU business.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on the weekend: "We cannot let China get these chips. Period. We're going to deny them our most cutting-edge technology. I know there are CEOs of chip companies in this audience who were a little cranky with me when I did that because you're losing revenue. Such is life. Protecting our national security matters more than short-term revenue".

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Hell, we're seeing the GeForce RTX 4090 -- NVIDIA's flagship gaming GPU -- being torn apart and turned into an AI accelerator because of US sanctions in China. It's not just one outlet doing it either, with multiple Chinese businesses working around the restrictions the Biden administration is putting up when it comes to AI GPUs.

Remember that China represents around 20% of NVIDIA's sales, so it can't piss the US government off too much by pushing into a $7 billion AI market when it already owns 90%+ of it. Huang said NVIDIA will adhere to US trade regulations "perfectly" and that he has to navigate increasingly challenging US-China trade tensions that have taken aim at NVIDIA's dominant AI GPUs as strategically important, also referred to as weapons of war.

Meta's chief scientist recently said that there is an "AI war" happening right now, and that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is "supplying the weapons," adding, "if you think AGI is in, the more GPUs you have to buy".