Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Praises China's AI, Pledges Continued Investment

Jensen Huang Praises Chinese AI, Promises Investment

In a notable move, Nvidia (NVDA.O) CEO Jensen Huang lauded China's AI as "world-class" during the opening ceremony of the 3rd Chain Expo on July 16th. He emphasized the importance of the Chinese market to Nvidia and pledged to continue investing in the vital region. His commitment to China was visually underscored by his choice to wear traditional Chinese attire instead of his signature leather jacket.

Huang predicted that the next decade would witness the emergence of AI capable of understanding the physical world and executing tasks, revolutionizing traditional manufacturing methods. He noted that collaboration between humans and AI would yield intelligent products, driving the next industrial revolution and unlocking new growth opportunities.

Praise for Xiaomi and Chinese Electric Vehicles

Huang expressed admiration for Xiaomi, highlighting the close collaboration between the two companies in various fields. He praised Xiaomi's CEO, Lei Jun, predicting his success from the outset. He also showed significant interest in Xiaomi's electric vehicles, describing China's progress in this sector as "astonishing to the world."

Huang's remarks spurred a short-term rally in the stock price of Xiaomi Group (01810.HK) in Hong Kong, partially offsetting the day's earlier losses.

AI as New Infrastructure

Huang emphasized that AI has become a new infrastructure, as crucial as electricity and the internet. He noted that AI is reshaping global supply chains, transforming how goods are designed, produced, and transported. He explained that China already has hundreds of "digital twin" research projects, aiming to simulate and optimize factory construction, train robots using Nvidia's Omniverse platform, and ensure safety in the virtual world. He predicted that future factories will rely on software and AI, coordinating human-machine collaboration to produce intelligent products.

Commending Chinese AI Innovation

Huang praised Chinese companies for contributing to the rapid global development of AI, specifically mentioning Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo, ByteDance, DeepSeek, Alibaba, MiniMax, and Baidu. He noted that over 1.5 million developers in China use Nvidia technologies, constantly driving innovation.

Open Source Collaboration as Catalyst

Huang applauded Chinese companies for adopting the open-source model, offering foundational code for free, fostering international cooperation, and contributing to the development of AI safety standards. He cited the Kimi K2 model, released by Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot AI, as an example. This model surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude in certain coding benchmarks, leading him to believe that Chinese open-source AI is a "catalyst" for global technological progress.

AI Driving Consumer Technology

Huang emphasized that AI is transforming all industries, fully "driving" China's consumer technology sectors. Platforms like WeChat, Taobao, Douyin, and Meituan rely on AI support. He also pointed out that AI empowers Xiaomi in autonomous driving and smartphones, supports Baidu's AI search engine, and enables Meituan's smart delivery services. He stressed that the future direction of AI development in the next decade lies in robotic systems capable of reasoning and executing, collaborating with humans, and deeply understanding the physical world.

Nvidia Resumes H20 Chip Shipments to China

Huang revealed that Nvidia is preparing to resume shipping H20 chips to China, after sales were suspended in April due to US export restrictions. These restrictions had nearly halved Nvidia's market share in China. Huang previously disclosed in May that the company lost $2.5 billion in sales in the first quarter and expected an additional loss of $8 billion in the second quarter, with a quarterly sales forecast of $45 billion.

This news was widely welcomed by the market. At the close of US markets on Tuesday, Nvidia's stock rose 4.04% to $170.7, and the company's market capitalization rose to $4.17 trillion, an increase of $161.8 billion in a single day (approximately 11605 billion yuan).