Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it’s “naive” to think the US will shift away from China.
“The idea of decoupling for whatever reason, philosophical reasons or national security reasons, it’s not based on any common sense,” Huang said during an episode of the “No Priors” podcast posted on Thursday.
Huang, whose company is eagerly awaiting the ability to sell advanced chips in China again, praised President Donald Trump’s approach to navigating the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
“I am optimistic that our relationship with China will improve, that President Trump and the administration has a really, really grounded and common-sense attitude and philosophy around how to think about China, that they’re an adversary, but they’re also a partner in many ways, and that the idea of decoupling is naive.”
Nvidia may soon be returning to the lucrative Chinese market, which Huang once estimated could be worth $50 billion a year.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that China planned to approve some sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips “as soon as this quarter.” In December, Trump lifted a Biden-era policy that effectively banned Nvidia from selling its older H200 in China, provided the US government gets a 25% cut on future sales. Huang has repeatedly said that the US will not slow down China’s AI advancements by curtailing the sales of advanced chips.
Huang said on Tuesday that he was not expecting a formal announcement from Beijing approving the sales of H200 chips. China previously imposed its restrictions on such sales.
“We’re not expecting any press releases, or any large declarations,” Huang said during a news conference on the sidelines of CES in Las Vegas. “It’s just going to be purchase orders.”
As for the broader US-China relationship, Huang said that both nations ought to continue to invest in their own independence. Trump has deployed a combination of tariffs and incentives to encourage US-based companies to bring their manufacturing back to the US.
“When you depend too much on someone, the relationship becomes too emotional, as you know,” Huang said. “And so it’s good to have some independence or there as much independence as either would like, but to recognize that there’s a lot of coupling, a lot of dependence between the two countries. And I think there needs to be a nuanced strategy, a nuanced attitude about how to manage this relationship in a productive way for all of the people of two countries and for all of the people around the world.”
The world needs both sides to figure it out, Huang said.
“Everybody depends on a productive, constructive relationship of the two most important nations and the single most important relationship for the next century,” he said. “And so we have to find that answer.”
