Jensen Huang calls US push to ban AI chip exports 'ridiculous,' warns of unintended consequences

Jensen Huang slams 'stupid' analogy comparing GPUs to nuclear weapons -- Nvidia CEO says government should allow selling GPUs to 'adversarial countries'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang served as a guest speaker at Stanford's CS 153 Frontier Systems course and discussed the hardware that powers AI systems today. One of the topics covered in the YouTube session is his stance on granting "adversarial countries" access to Nvidia chips. It's widely known that the Nvidia chief is against export controls on AI chips, saying that it was a failure and has completely backfired. Other industry leaders do not take a similar stance, with Anthropic's head, Dario Amodei, comparing selling advanced AI chips to China to selling nuclear weapons to North Korea. Jensen did not take this comparison too kindly, saying it does not make any sense. "What I'm fundamentally against, and it makes no sense, it makes no sense in this moment, is to compare Nvidia GPUs to atomic bombs. There are a billion people with Nvidia GPUs; I advocate Nvidia GPUs to all of you, I advocate Nvidia GPUs to my family, my kids, to people I love -- but I don't advocate atomic bombs to anybody," the Nvidia CEO said. "So that analogy is stupid. And so, so if you start from there, you can't finish a thought -- if you start from believing that, you can't finish the rest of the thoughts." Jensen Huang is a firm believer that the world should use the American tech stack and that it would be detrimental to the U.S.'s advantage if it were to block a nation from accessing it. Nvidia has a global advantage in that it's the largest and most popular manufacturer of AI chips, and its technologies, like the CUDA architecture, drive the progress of most of the world's AI developers. Keeping this technology widely available to anyone would mean that most of the world's AI -- whether developed in the U.S. or built in China -- runs on American hardware. However, critics point out that this could fuel the nation's adversaries, enabling them to develop and train advanced artificial intelligence for military purposes using Nvidia chips. Jensen said that the Chinese military will avoid U.S. AI tech, much like how the Pentagon does not use Chinese systems. The company also denied providing technical assistance for DeepSeek to improve its training efficiency on models, which were later used by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). However, public documents revealed that some Chinese universities with deep ties to China's military-industrial complex acquired Super Micro servers configured with Nvidia A100 AI GPUs. Unlike nuclear missiles and atomic bombs, AI GPUs aren't strictly military systems designed for a specific mission. Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that has applications in science, research, business, and many other industries. However, its flexibility also makes it a dual-use technology, meaning it can be used in civilian and military contexts. It is the latter application that has U.S. policymakers worried, in which the same hardware and AI models can be leveraged by armed forces for operational use, such as intelligence and threat analysis, autonomous systems, simulations, and more. This could erode the U.S.'s technological and military edge and give its adversaries a strategic advantage. Both sides of the argument have valid points -- America has the advantage as the key provider of AI technologies worldwide, and it makes sense to keep it that way. However, it also does not want its rivals to have access to advanced technologies that could accelerate their capabilities and narrow the United States' lead in defense technologies. Unfortunately, we can only tell which approach proves to be more effective years, if not decades, from today. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls out US push to ban AI chip exports to China, calls it "completely ridiculous

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls a total ban on AI chip exports to China 'ridiculous'. He believes such restrictions would push China to build its own technology, ultimately harming US leadership. Huang argues American companies should compete globally. He suggests China can still advance AI using existing resources and older chips, not just the most advanced ones. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has pushed back against growing calls in the US to fully block the export of advanced AI chips to China, calling the idea "completely ridiculous." He warned that a total ban would likely have unintended consequences, including accelerating China's push to build its own independent tech ecosystem. According to Huang, such restrictions could ultimately weaken US influence in the global AI race rather than strengthen it. The Nvidia chief also criticized the broader mindset behind the proposal, arguing that American companies should not retreat from international markets simply due to competitive pressure. ALSO READ: Salesforce planning a future without new engineers? "The idea that I regard as completely ridiculous is: why should American companies go compete in foreign countries if you are going to lose it anyway?" Huang said. He said if the same philosophy is followed in real life, why do we need to wake up when we have to eventually die. "If you guys all apply that same philosophy, why wake up in the morning? If you want me to lose, you are going to have to deal it to me." Nvidia CEO on Dwarkesh Podcast Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reacted strongly when asked whether selling advanced AI chips to China could create national security risks for the United States. During the exchange, the interviewer cited Anthropic's Claude Mythos model as a reference point, suggesting that access to Nvidia's high-performance chips could potentially strengthen China's position in the global AI race and intensify competition with the US. ALSO READ: Imran Khan-linked 'Cyphergate' Row hits Pakistan "The premise that -- even if we competed in China, that we're going to lose that market anyways -- you're not talking to somebody who woke up a loser," Huang said indignantly. "And that loser attitude, that loser premise makes no sense to me." He was asked if giving China powerful AI chips could harm US companies and national security. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said China does not need access to the most advanced AI chips to remain competitive in the global tech race. He noted that models like Anthropic's Claude Mythos were trained using relatively "mundane" computing capacity, suggesting that cutting-edge hardware is not always essential for major AI breakthroughs. Huang also pointed out that China already has substantial computing resources, even if they are not at the same level as Nvidia's latest chips. He added that Chinese firms could still scale AI systems by using a "brute force" approach -- linking large numbers of older or less advanced chips to achieve similar outcomes. He cited Huawei's CloudMatrix system as an example of this strategy. Warning against strict export bans, Huang argued that isolating China from US technology would likely accelerate the creation of an independent tech ecosystem outside American influence. He said a fragmented world split between competing technology stacks would be a "horrible outcome" for long-term US leadership. Instead, Huang emphasized that the US should stay globally competitive by continuing international trade in AI hardware and keeping other countries aligned with Western technological standards.