At this year's VivaTech conference in Paris, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang publicly stated, "Huawei has firmly controlled the Chinese market." He cautioned that if the U.S. continues to adopt trade isolationist tactics, it may unexpectedly lose victory to China in this global AI race.
Today, China is the world's second largest economy, and Huawei is undoubtedly the most representative technology company. Over the past few years, the trade war between China and the United States over high-end chip technology has continued to escalate. While the U.S. still has a technical lead, a series of recent policy changes are eroding its dominant position.
Huang put it bluntly: "Our technology is a generation ahead of theirs (Huawei)." This evaluation has also been recognized by Huawei internally. However, he then changed his tune: "If the United States chooses not to participate in the Chinese market, then Huawei will not only cover the whole of China, but also affect the markets of other countries."
Since 2020, the U.S. government has successively added a number of Chinese technology companies to the Ministry of Commerce's "Entity List", restricting their access to cutting-edge chip-making technology and strictly controlling the export of advanced U.S. technology to China. This policy was intended to curb the rapid rise of Chinese technology.
But the situation has heated up again recently. The Trump administration not only stepped up its tariff offensive on Chinese products, but also said that it would "forcefully revoke the visas of Chinese students", and the Chinese side responded quickly, calling on international students to return to China and accelerating the introduction and training of domestic AI talents.
"If we want the U.S. technology system to win globally, it's obviously not wise to give up half of the world's AI R&D talent." "If AI developers are in China, then the 'China tech stack' will win," Huang stressed. Therefore, we must be wary of the long-term, unforeseen consequences that short-term actions can bring.”
Pictured: Huang warns that isolation could give up the AI advantage to China (Photo: Youtube)
In fact, China's accelerated catch-up in technology has long been traced. Over the past decade, China has produced twice as much research on next-generation chip technology as the United States, leading the way in terms of citations and academic quality, according to a new study. The gap continues to widen, especially as the Trump administration plans to "reconsider" CHIPS and Science Act contracts and cut spending on research.
While Huang has expressed concerns about the Trump administration's policies, he has not publicly criticized them. He said the president "knows what he's doing" and "has a clear strategy," adding, "We're going to do everything we can to support him."
On the other hand, Huawei has also shown a low-key and pragmatic stance. Its founder, Ren Zhengfei, once said: "The United States has overrated Huawei, we are far from the level they described, and we still need to continue to work hard." "Despite this, Huawei's core position in China's local chip industry should not be underestimated, and it is constantly promoting the development of China's own technology.
As U.S. policy moves toward tougher policies, the global technology landscape is also quietly changing. Is it a restriction, or is it an inadvertent boost to the competition? The answer may be revealed in the coming years.
