[WORLD] Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently met with members of the U.S. Congress to express concerns about Huawei Technologies’ expanding artificial intelligence capabilities, a senior staffer from the House Foreign Affairs Committee confirmed.
The closed-door meeting, held with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, underscores growing unease in Washington amid intensifying technological rivalry between the U.S. and China. Semiconductors remain at the heart of this conflict, with the Biden administration steadily increasing restrictions on chip exports to China since October 2022 in an effort to slow Beijing’s progress in advanced technology sectors.
Rather than stalling China’s ambitions, the curbs appear to have spurred a renewed drive among Chinese firms to develop homegrown alternatives—efforts led prominently by Huawei. U.S. lawmakers were briefed on the potential risks posed by Huawei’s AI chip development, particularly how current U.S. export controls on Nvidia products could inadvertently enhance the competitiveness of Chinese-made chips.
Industry experts point to Huawei’s Ascend AI chips, which have made significant strides in performance. Some evaluations even suggest the chips now rival Nvidia’s A100 in select use cases. This evolution is raising alarms in Washington, as a growing number of Chinese companies pivot toward domestic AI solutions amid limited access to foreign hardware.
“If DeepSeek-R1 had been trained on Huawei chips—or if an open-source Chinese AI model is tailored to run optimally on them—it could spark a global demand for Huawei chips,” the committee staffer warned.
The scenario reflects broader anxieties over the possible “de-Americanization” of international tech supply chains. According to recent reports, major Chinese firms such as Baidu and Alibaba have already begun accumulating Huawei’s AI chips, hinting at a possible market realignment away from U.S. suppliers.
Nvidia’s current position highlights the complexities facing American tech companies operating in a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape. While the firm has introduced modified chips for the Chinese market to remain compliant with U.S. export rules, these variants reportedly fall short in performance, making them less appealing compared to Huawei’s fully functional offerings.
U.S. policymakers now face a strategic dilemma: doubling down on export restrictions could further galvanize China’s domestic tech development, while easing controls may weaken efforts to safeguard national security. The balancing act is reflected in ongoing deliberations over whether Nvidia should receive special licenses to continue limited exports to China.
WhatsApp
Instagram
Threads
