Discussions with the White House to allow American AI chip company Nvidia to sell a less advanced version of its next-generation GPU chip to China will take time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Thursday.
When asked about White House talks on Blackwell chip sales to China in a Fox Business News interview, Huang said the discussions had started.
“The conversation will take a while, but … President [Donald] Trump understands that having the world build AI on the American tech stack helps America win the AI race.”
Earlier this month, Trump suggested he might allow Nvidia to sell a scaled-down version of the chip in China, noting that it would be 30 to 50 per cent less capable than the regular version.
That comes despite deep-seated fears in Washington that China could harness US artificial intelligence capabilities to supercharge its military.
Trump confirms Nvidia deal to sell lower-end chips to China
China hawks fear allowing even stripped-down Blackwell chip sales to China could open the door to Beijing securing more advanced computing power from the US, even as the two countries battle for technology supremacy.