Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Courts Trump Administration at DC Conference, Advocates for China Trade

In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took the stage at the tech giant's GTC Washington, DC conference wearing his usual black leather jacket, but he might as well have accessorized his go-to outfit with a red MAGA cap. In a nearly two-hour long keynote at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center here, Huang hyped Nvidia's current and coming progress in AI computing while announcing multiple new partners, with the Trump administration high on that list. Huang took a nationalistic tone early on in the conference, which he called "the Super Bowl of AI." He announced the first in a series of partnerships, a venture with Nokia to build gear for the 6G networks that Nokia predicts will enter service by 2030. The CEO said that after decades of American innovation, today's wireless networks are now "largely deployed on foreign technologies," going a step beyond earlier, bipartisan expressions of concern over Chinese and Russian influence in 5G standards and network hardware. "That has to stop," Huang said. The Nokia partnership, which involves Nvidia investing $1 billion in that Finnish firm, will yield a platform called Arc -- an acronym nesting other acronyms: "Aerial RAN (Radio Access Network) Computer" -- which Huang described as a software-defined 6G base station. "For the first time, we'll be able to use AI technology, AI for RAN, to make radio communications more spectral-efficient," he predicted. (The GTC Wi-Fi itself could have used some optimization at that point, with attendees next to me complaining about it not working.) 'A Fundamental Breakthrough' Next, Huang turned to a tech frontier he has been skeptical about before -- quantum computing and its potential for exponentially more powerful processors if engineers can surmount its error-prone nature. "The industry has made a fundamental breakthrough," he said, nodding to recent advances in making qubits -- quantum's equivalent of a bit in classical computing, except it's much harder to work with -- "coherent, stable, and error-corrected." Nvidia's latest contribution to that field is a system architecture called NVQLink that can integrate a quantum processing unit with a GPU and a conventional CPU, integrating error correction for the fragile output of a quantum computer. Eight Department of Energy labs will be working with Nvidia to experiment with this technology, and Huang further announced that Nokia will collaborate with Oracle to build seven new AI supercomputers for DOE labs to apply that level processing power to some of science's harder problems. "These scientific supercomputers are not going to run chatbots," Huang said. "They're going to do basic science." All of this AI infrastructure demands enormous amounts of power, which doesn't bode well for home electric rates, and Huang took a moment to commend the current administration for its energy policies. "President Trump deserves enormous credit for putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth," he said. "If this didn't happen, we could have been in a bad situation, and I want to thank President Trump for that," Huang declared. Huang's description demands clarification: While Trump has been a vocal supporter of fossil fuels as well as nuclear energy, as seen in his AI Action Plan, his open hostility towards solar and wind power has led to the cancellation of renewable-energy projects that would have added gigawatts of capacity to the electric grid. 'AI Is Not a Tool, AI Is Work' Huang got back on message about the virtues of AI, comparing it to conventional software that exists as a tool for use at a specific task: "AI is not a tool; AI is work." With companies now willing to pay a premium for AI's ability to advance their work, he said AI had reached the "virtuous cycle" stage. "The more profit generated, the more compute that's put on the grid," he said. Nvidia's current Grace Blackwell and upcoming Vera Rubin GPU platforms will help that cycle spin faster by making AI cheaper to use, Huang attested. "The speed difference is incredible," he said of the company's Grace Blackwell NVL72, citing SemiAnalysis benchmark tests that found it yielded 10 times the performance per dollar and watt of Nvidia's older H200 NLV8. With further advances coming in Rubin, Nvidia projects $500 billion in sales of the two platforms combined over 2025 and 2026. A video highlighted how such manufacturing partners as TSMC, SK Hynix, and Foxconn are now making Blackwell hardware at US facilities, and Huang again thanked Trump for that. "The first thing that President Trump asked me for is, bring manufacturing back," he said. "Nine months later, we are now manufacturing, in full production, Blackwell in Arizona." But bringing hardware manufacturing back isn't a new plot twist that began under this administration. The Chips and Science Act that Congress passed in 2022 under President Biden included billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives to encourage that industrial shift, with TSMC and SK Hynix among the bigger beneficiaries. Bring in the Robots After recapping Nvidia's work in using its Omniverse platform to develop "AI Factory" data centers and new partnerships with the defense-tech firm Palantir and the security firm CrowdStrike, Huang turned to talking up Nvidia's hopes for robotics. One is robots that interact with humans, such as Tesla's humanoid, much-hyped Optimus and Disney's BDX Droid, a more diminutive robot that evokes the scruffy hero of Pixar's WALL-E. This entire category remains vaporware at the consumer level, but Huang voiced a level of optimism that evoked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's already-busted metaverse predictions: "This is going to be the largest consumer electronics product line in the world." Another is robotaxis, which are now a commercial reality in a growing number of cities. "There's one robot that is clearly at an inflection point," Huang said before touted Nvidia Drive AGX Hyperion, a platform that the company is developing to make cars "robotaxi-ready." Stellantis, the parent firm of such makes as Chrysler and Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, and the EV maker Lucid are along for the ride, he said. Huang wrapped up the keynote with one more grace note for the president who, like many, keeps mispronouncing the company's name as "nuh-vidia" by giving a MAGA shout-out to audience members: "Thank you all for your service and making America great again."

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang starts a key trip to South Korea -- here's what he might be up to

Other areas where Nvidia may announce plans could be driverless cars and robotics, a major area of focus for South Korea's tech industry. And for Huang, it's not just about business. Geopolitics will be a big focal point as Huang's trip coincides with a planned meeting between Trump and Xi in South Korea. Trump called Huang "an incredible guy" during a speech at the APEC Summit in South Korea. Separately, Trump said he will meet with the CEO on Wednesday. This week could be crucial for providing insights on Nvidia's future in China. The tech giant was previously banned from exporting its AI chips to China until earlier this year when the Trump administration ended the restrictions. While Nvidia is permitted to export its downgraded H20 chip to China, Beijing has reportedly pushed local companies not to purchase it. Instead, China is pushing its local firms to buy domestic Nvidia alternatives. Trump on Wednesday signaled that Nvidia's Blackwell AI processors could be up for discussion with Xi.The Blackwell chip is Nvidia's most advanced product and is not currently allowed to be exported to China. "Trump wants to do business with China and he considers almost everything is business including Nvidia," George Chen, partner and co-chair of the digital practice at The Asia Group, told CNBC on Wednesday. "We may see China wants some sort of guarantee that the U.S. will not add location trackers into U.S. chips to be sold to China ... The U.S. may also have its own demands in return, hence Nvidia now becomes one of the bargains for the two presidents in Korea." Chinese regulators in July raised concerns about the security of Nvidia chips in July. The world's second-largest economy is a lucrative market for Nvidia and being shut out has already cost the tech giant billions of dollars in lost sales. Any opening up of the China market will be positive for the chip maker.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Makes His Case for China Trade

Nvidia's first ever GTC to be hosted in Washington D.C.â€"a conference that's been deemed the "Super Bowl of AI"â€"was a rare occasion that brought together both government officials and the tech industry under one roof. It was an opportunity for the tech executives in attendance to advocate for industry friendly policies straight to the government. Unsurprisingly, CEO Jensen Huang was first to take advantage of that opportunity to the fullest. "America needs to be the most aggressive in adopting AI technology of any country in the world, bar none, and that is an imperative. We can't regulate our way out of this, we can't fear-monger our way out of this," Huang said in a press and industry briefing. "We have to encourage every single company, every single student, to use AI." The leather jacket-clad executive spent most of his crowd-facing time repeating Trump administration talking points on bringing back manufacturing or lauding the President. He also spent time trying to make the case for the normalization of trade ties with China. "As it turns out, the best benefit to United States is for American technology to be available in China to win the hearts and minds of their developers," Huang said. "A policy that causes America to lose half of the world's AI developers is not beneficial long term, it hurts us more. It hurts America more than it hurts them." Huang also argued that because China is a huge creator of open source software, if Americans retreat completely from China they might risk being "ill-prepared" for when Chinese software "permeates the world." The U.S.-China trade war has impacted so many parts of the global economy, but the tech industry has been at the forefront, with Nvidia right in the bullseye. The Biden administration was first to enforce export restrictions on Nvidia's chips sales to China, due to national security concerns and competitive fears. The restrictions got even stricter under Trump after Beijing landed a big blow to American AI confidence earlier this year with DeepSeek's R1, a model that rivaled some of the best American AI offerings despite using lower cost chips. It showed the U.S. that Chinese developers did not need access to the highest tech Nvidia chips to make models that outperform expectations. The few months of the Trump imposed blanket exports ban was a big hit to Nvidia: executives shared in a May earnings call that they were revising revenue expectations for the quarter down by about $8 billion because of it. After a months-long noteworthy lobbying effort by Huang, Trump decided to relax the rule in July, but then demanded a 15% cut from China sales in return. Now, Huang reveals there's not yet a signed document for that arrangement. "The administration is working on that, and until then, we don't really have to confront it, because, you know, obviously China hasn't decided to allow our chips to go back to China," Huang said. After Trump okayed the sale of Nvidia's chips to China, it was now Beijing's turn to take a hard stance on the chipmaker. Chinese authorities have started discouraging local industry titans from purchasing Nvidia chips. The reason for that could be because Beijing has decided to decouple its AI industry from American tech. Chinese AI industry is currently dependent on American chipmakers like Nvidia, and that gives Americans an edge, especially when the only chips they allow in are lower-model ones. In the absence of Nvidia chips, China will have to develop their own high-tech chips that can rival, and perhaps even surpass, the quality of Nvidia chips. If that happens, the United States can be at jeopardy to lose its hold on the global chips market to China. After Trump’s blanket ban earlier this year choked off flow of Nvidia chips, Chinese chip development ramped up. China chip stocks are now experiencing a major boom, so big that Cambricon had to warn investors recently that things might be getting a little too hot. In its latest earnings call, Nvidia executives conceded that they were facing disappointing numbers from the region still because H20 chip shipments were yet to begin. Now, Huang is working hard to turn those numbers back up. Huang took to the stage at the press briefing with secretary of energy Chris Wright, in light of the tech giant's announcement that it would be building seven giant AI supercomputers for the Department of Energy. Wright shared that he is optimistic that the two global superpowers would soon have a trade agreement. "China is an economic, scientific powerhouse, so we have some differences across the nations, but we have a lot of common ground," Wright said. Trump is currently in South Korea, where he is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in a couple of hours. Huang said on Tuesday that he was flying out very soon to meet the President in South Korea, and he was notably missing from GTC on Wednesday. While Huang refused to answer questions on whether or not he would be joining the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, he did say that he had "a lot of announcements to make there." While aboard Air Force One to South Korea, Trump told reporters that he might talk about the sale of Nvidia's Blackwell model chips to China in his meeting with the President. He called the chips "super-duper."

Nvidia and Oracle Are Planning the 'Largest Supercomputer' in America for Trump

Nvidia and Oracle will build the Department of Energy's largest AI supercomputer, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced on Tuesday, at the company's first ever GTC AI conference to be held in Washington D.C. Huang, at one point during the reception, even asserted from Nvidia's booth in the expo that he is planning "the largest supercomputerâ€"AI supercomputerâ€"in America for DOE." Along with the federally-funded Argonne National Laboratory, the two tech giants will build a total of seven new AI supercomputers. "The majority of that computational power will be used for commercial applications to drive American business," secretary of energy Chris Wright said in a press briefing following Huang's keynote event, adding that "a significant minority" will be used towards science and national security. Construction will begin immediately, with computing power starting to flow into the Department as early as next week, according to Wright. The first of the seven supercomputers is expected to be delivered in 2026, with the largest one coming later. "I'm like a kid in a candy store," the secretary said. Wright said that he was the one that reached out to "the players in the industry" to ink partnerships to "supercharge" the Department's scientific and national defense efforts. The announcement is the latest in a string of collaborations between Nvidia and the government, showing an ever-growing connection between the AI industry and the Trump administration. Trump, although missing from the conference, was practically everywhere on Tuesday. "The original plan was Trump was going to be here," Huang told attendees ahead of his keynote speech. Trump is instead in a whirlwind diplomacy tour across Asia. Huang shared that he will be joining the President on the South Korea leg of the tour, where Trump is supposed to have a key meeting with China's Xi Jinping. The meeting will be decisive for trade relations between the two countries, which has an undeniably large impact on Nvidia's business. Huang thanked the Trump administration repeatedly in his keynote speech on Tuesday, and ended it by shouting "Thank you for making America great again!" to the crowd of tech enthusiasts, GPU fanboys and government officials. In a press briefing following the keynote, he thanked secretary Wright and President Trump for their energy policies. "I'm so grateful that President Trump is pro-energy," Huang said. "With administrations and others vilifying the use of energy, it was very difficult for the United States to win the AI race or to win any industrial race." AI has monstrous energy demands and gulps up insane amounts of water, often putting a strain on communities local to data centers. These AI data centers also have a massive carbon footprint, with the energy demand causing increasing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing further to climate change. In a departure from the Biden administration, Trump is very okay with carbon-intensive energy and doesn't necessarily believe in climate change. In fact, he has canceled billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects, and reportedly is eyeing even more cuts. In the briefing, Huang also repeatedly promised an all-American assembly line, something that the administration has put significant pressure on the tech giant and other Silicon Valley companies about. "Everything from the beginning, from idea, silicon, all the way to the generation of intelligence will be here in the United States," Huang said. When asked about his donation to the construction of Trump's new White House ballroom, Huang said that he was "incredibly proud and delighted to help contribute in a small way to what will clearly be a historic national monument for our country." Ironically though, Trump is now demolishing an actual historic American treasure, the East Wing of the White House, to make room for the ballroom. Even the fact that Nvidia decided to start organizing a second GTC in D.C. is testament to the company's close ties to the President and his administration. Nvidia's GTC conference is usually held once a year in March at the heart of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California. The event is considered the "Super Bowl" of AI, so Silicon Valley is an arguably more well-suited place for it to be held than the nation's capital, and even Huang himself was aware of the incongruity. "This has got to be the most technical conference in Washington D.C.," Huang said.

Trump looms large over Nvidia conference

The big picture: Huang spelled out what he described as a "pro-America" vision for global AI leadership and energy expansion that aligned closely with Trump's agenda. * "It's a completely new adventure for me, but I come with only one purpose -- only just to inform and to be in service of the president as he thinks about how to make America great and do the best thing for America," he told reporters during a media Q&A. State of play: His comments came as Nvidia has been locked out of selling its most advanced chips to China amid heightened tensions over global trade and security. * Huang said U.S. policies, such as an AI exports program, should prioritize capturing 80% of global AI market share, boosting energy production and attracting the best developers in the world to domestic soil. * "It is absolutely the case that we can lose this race," he said. "But we are well ahead today." Behind the scenes: Huang said all of his conversations with Trump center on the president's vision of making America "rich" and boosting the domestic manufacturing sector. * "100% of his phone calls to me are 10:30 at night his time, not my time," Huang said. Trump's readiness to meet the energy demands of AI was a major focal point for Huang. * Energy Secretary Chris Wright made an appearance alongside Huang during the media Q&A, earning praise from the Nvidia CEO for the administration's "pro-energy" policies. * Earlier in the day Huang announced Nvidia will team up with the Department of Energy to build seven AI supercomputers. * "In this partnership we're going to get computing power next week, that already exists, but immediately steered over to speed up the advancement of science now," Wright said. Asked whether a deal to give the government a share of revenue from chip sales to China would be constitutional, Huang noted that a regulation "has to be created to enable us to be able to pay, and the administration is working on that. Until then, we don't really have to confront it." Huang emphasized the importance of immigration, one area where the administration is straining the ability of high-skilled workers. * "50% of the world's AI researchers are Chinese, and if you look at look at the AI labs here in America and the number of Chinese people that are there, it's quite significant," Huang said. * "It is extremely important that United States continue to be the country by which immigrants like myself want to come here to do our education, to stay and build our career and build our life," Huang added. What's next: Trump, addressing business leaders in Tokyo, said he would meet with Huang on Wednesday.

Jensen Huang tests a path back into China for Nvidia

Nvidia has conquered nearly every market on earth -- except the one it can't enter. The company's chips train ChatGPT, run Wall Street's data centers, and keep Silicon Valley's market caps inflated. But in China, once a $7 billion revenue stream, Nvidia's racks sit empty. U.S. export controls shut the door. Beijing's recommendations then dead-bolted it. And CEO Jensen Huang now sounds less like a conquering founder than a man petitioning for reentry. "[China has] made it very clear that they don't want Nvidia to be there right now," Huang told reporters in Washington on Tuesday. "I hope that will change in the future." He added a statistic that doubles as a warning: Half of the world's AI researchers are Chinese. Lose access to that talent, he argued, and America won't just forfeit a market -- it could lose the engine of its own innovation. Before the bans, the ban reversals, and China's closed door, Nvidia controlled roughly 95% of China's advanced-AI chip market. "We went from 95% market share to 0%," Huang said, confirming earlier remarks that the company is "100% out of China." The numbers sound clinical, but the stakes are existential. Analysts estimate those lost sales could cost Nvidia as much as $15 billion in annual revenue -- and around $3 billion in U.S. tax receipts -- a price tag that turns geopolitics into a line item. Now, the plot thickens. As Huang heads to South Korea later this week for a summit of global tech executives and planned meetings with President Donald Trump -- who is in the country for a trade summit with President Xi Jinping -- Huang was asked: Are you also going to be meeting with the Chinese leader? If not, who are you going to be meeting with? Will you talk with Trump about selling Blackwell chips in China? His response: "No comment. I've got a busy schedule coming up." He added, "There are a lot of meetings to be had. We have a lot of announcements to make there." But for all the flag-waving, Huang's subtext is pragmatic. "A policy that causes America to lose half the world's AI developers ... hurts us more," he warned. The real threat, he argues, isn't Chinese chips -- it's Chinese standards. If Chinese coders and labs can't train on Nvidia's CUDA platform, they'll write for someone else's. Once that happens, there's no tariff high enough to bring the ecosystem back. Huang has made the same point abroad. In Taipei last spring, he called U.S. export controls "a failure," telling The Guardian that the restrictions "gave [China's companies] the spirit, the energy, and the government support to accelerate their development." He knows the paradox: Every door that closes for Nvidia opens a factory for someone else. That tension is already bleeding into policy. In mid-August, Nvidia agreed to give the U.S. government roughly 15% of any future China-related chip revenues in exchange for export licenses -- a workaround that has already drawn legal scrutiny and constitutional questions about whether Washington can profit from the companies it regulates. Still, he isn't walking away. Huang said in an interview earlier this year on CNBC that China remains "a very large market ... a $50 billion opportunity within two or three years." He's betting that mutual dependence -- China's appetite for performance per watt, and America's desire to keep its architecture dominant -- will eventually force a compromise. If both sides want to claim technological leadership, Nvidia's return becomes less a question of if than when. But time favors whoever builds fastest. Each quarter Nvidia spends outside China is another quarter Chinese engineers spend optimizing without it. The company that once defined AI's speed now risks watching others dictate its rules. For now, Wall Street doesn't care. Nvidia is the rare firm whose exile from a top market coincides with record profits. Investors treat its absence from China as proof of scarcity -- evidence that its chips are too powerful, its moat too wide, its politics too valuable to ignore. That logic works until the market shifts. Dominance without access can only hold for so long before it turns into insulation. Nvidia helped build the global infrastructure of intelligence. Now it's watching one of the world's biggest laboratories run without it. Huang still calls China an "important market," but his real fear is that it could become a separate one. The company that sells everyone else the future is still waiting for permission to sell it in China -- and that permission may determine whose future wins.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang reveals flurry of AI projects

Why it matters: Huang is broadening Nvidia's reach as a key U.S. player in the AI race policymakers are eager to win, with projects spanning biopharma, autonomous vehicles, telecom and quantum computing. Driving the news: Huang, in a keynote speech at Nvidia's GTC in D.C. announced partnerships with: * Uber to support a global fleet of 100,000 autonomous vehicles, with Huang saying that "robotaxis' inflection point is about to get here" and "it's going to be a very large market." * Nokia to accelerate 6G. * Palantir for government and industry applications and customizable AI agents. Huang also announced that Nvidia is teaming up with the Department of Energy to build seven AI supercomputers. * He unveiled NVQLink, an open-system architecture designed to connect quantum processors with GPU computing systems, that U.S. national laboratories will use to try to make breakthroughs in quantum computing. What they're saying: "The first thing that President Trump asked me for is bringing manufacturing back," Huang told the crowd. * "And nine months later ... we are now manufacturing in full production Blackwell in Arizona." * The need for AI data centers, he added, is powering a re-industrialization of America. * Huang highlighted Trump's energy policy, saying that the development of the American AI economy would have been hampered without it: "I want to thank President Trump for that," Huang said. Huang also outlined a case for AI creating jobs, not destroying them. His comments came amid major layoff announcements by the likes of UPS and Amazon. * "We have a severe shortage of labor," Huang said. The big picture: Nvidia's conference comes as Trump is making the rounds in Asia and U.S.-China trade talks inch forward. Industry players at the conference said Jensen, who is seeking more China market access, could help U.S.-China relations. * "We're going to go support the president in his tour through Asia," Huang said on Tuesday. The bottom line: Nvidia has tentacles all over the AI ecosystem and is trying to position itself to play a significant role in shaping how the technology impacts daily life.

Nvidia CEO touts Trump at 'Super Bowl of AI'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offered praise for President Trump and his energy and manufacturing policies on Tuesday, even borrowing the president's signature phrase and thanking the crowd at Nvidia's conference in Washington for "making America great again." Huang brought the chipmaker's GTC conference, sometimes referred to as the "Super Bowl" of artificial intelligence (AI), to Washington for the first time, as the technology has become a key focus of the Trump administration. The Nvidia CEO suggested Tuesday that the president and his administration deserve "enormous credit" for their efforts to boost energy development in the U.S. "This pro-energy initiative, this recognition that this industry needs energy to grow. It needs energy to advance, and we need energy to win," Huang said during his two-hour keynote speech. "His recognition of that and putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth completely changed the game," he continued. "If this didn't happen, we could have been a bad situation, and I want to thank President Trump for that." The administration has pushed to reduce barriers to new energy projects, particularly those related to AI, which requires massive amounts of power. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a proposal last week that aims to help AI data centers get connected to the grid more quickly. Wright later joined Huang for a question-and-answer session at the conference. Huang also embraced the administration's push to reshore manufacturing, underscoring Nvidia's efforts to build its chips stateside and touting the company's first Blackwell chip produced on U.S. soil. "We are manufacturing in America again. It is incredible," Huang said. "The first thing that President Trump asked me for is bring manufacturing back. Bring manufacturing back because it's necessary for national security. Bring manufacturing back because we want the jobs. We want that part of the economy." Huang, who is reportedly set to meet with Trump this week, has developed a friendly relationship with the president in his second term. This appears to be a key as Nvidia attempts to navigate an often-tenuous relationship between the U.S. and China, in which both superpowers are vying for AI dominance. The chipmaker scored a major victory this summer, when the Trump administration agreed to approve licenses for Nvidia to sell its H20 chips in China in exchange for a 15 percent cut of its revenue -- a move that drew scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Huang's influence also appears to have broken through on other issues. Trump suggested last week that the Nvidia CEO was among those who convinced him not to send in the National Guard to San Francisco.

Nvidia will build AI supercomputers for US Energy Department, wants to get back into China - The Economic Times

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang came to Washington on Tuesday with a message for the Trump administration: the U.S. can win the AI battle if the world, including China's massive developer base, runs on Nvidia systems. In his address at the first Nvidia developers' conference held in Washington, Huang walked a fine line between praising President Donald Trump, whose "America First" agenda Huang credited with spurring greater investment in U.S. manufacturing and AI leadership, and risking further antagonism of China. Huang said the artificial intelligence chip leader will build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy and had $500 billion in bookings for advanced chips, but also lamented that the Chinese government has shut it out of its market. Nvidia is at the core of the global AI rollout, and it is striking deals around the world while also navigating a U.S.-China trade war that could determine which country's technology is most used around the world. Trump is touring Asia ahead of an expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday where China's use of Nvidia's chips could be a key issue. "We want America to win this AI race. No doubt about that," Huang said. "We want the world to be built on American tech stack. Absolutely the case. But we also need to be in China to win their developers. A policy that causes America to lose half of the world's AI developers is not beneficial long term, it hurts us more." Huang said his company had not applied for U.S. export licenses to send its newest chips to China because of the Chinese position. "They've made it very clear that they don't want Nvidia to be there right now," he said at a news conference during the company's GTC developers event. "I hope that will change in the future because I think China is a very important market." U.S. administrations have swung back and forth on allowing Nvidia's advanced chips into China, vacillating on whether access would make China more dependent on the U.S. technology or give its military and tech companies a competitive boost. Huang praised Trump while announcing new products and deals. These included network technology that will let Nvidia AI chips work with quantum computers, a telecom deal with Finland's Nokia and self-driving car technology with Uber and Stellantis. The supercomputers Nvidia is building for the Energy Department will in part help the United States maintain and develop its nuclear weapons arsenal. The supercomputers will also be used to research alternative energy sources such as nuclear fusion. The largest of the supercomputers for the Department of Energy will be built with Oracle and contain 100,000 of Nvidia's Blackwell chips. "Putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth completely changed the game," Huang said. "If this didn't happen, we could have been in a bad situation, and I want to thank President Trump for that." Nvidia shares closed 5% higher at $201.03 on Tuesday. Blake Anderson, an associate portfolio manager at Carson Group, estimated that one of the supercomputers, dubbed "Solstice," could alone feature Nvidia chips worth about $3 billion to $4 billion. However, since federal customers are likely to receive discounts, the pricing could vary from the $30,000 to $40,000 price tag Blackwell chips tend to carry, Anderson added. Nvidia declined to comment on the size of the Energy Department deals, and the Energy Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Among the deals Huang discussed, Nvidia and Nokia will target the AI communications market. Nvidia will invest $1 billion for a 2.9% stake in Nokia and it also introduced a new product line called Arc, designed to work with telecommunications equipment. Huang said Nvidia will work with Nokia to improve the power efficiency of the company's base stations for 6G, the next generation of wireless data technology. "We're going to take this new technology and we'll be able to upgrade millions of base stations around the world," Huang said. Nvidia also announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies, a company that works closely with the U.S. government, to improve logistics for companies. Nvidia announced a new self-driving car technology platform called Hyperion. Huang said that Nvidia is partnering with Uber to create a network of robotaxis. "These announcements all show Nvidia's ability to extend its reach beyond its core data center customers," said Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. "While these projects pale in comparison to the capex by the hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta, they could create new markets for Nvidia down the line." Trump in his second term at first restricted exports of Nvidia's AI chips designed for the China market before reversing course in July. Huang has argued that Nvidia needs access to some $50 billion in potential sales from the Chinese market to fund U.S.-based research and development to maintain his company's edge. Reuters has previously reported that Chinese developers still want Nvidia's chips, despite pressure from Beijing to purchase domestic chips from Huawei Technologies Co. Nvidia outlined how it is making chips in Arizona at TSMC's facilities, and assembling servers in Texas and networking gear in California. "We are manufacturing in America again - it is incredible. The first thing that President Trump asked me is, 'bring manufacturing back,'" Huang said. He said that TSMC is bringing its most advanced technology for packaging chips to the United States in the next several months. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Additional reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Matthew Lewis)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Delivers Stark Message In Washington -- US Can't Win AI Battle By Shutting Out China's Developers: 'It Hurts Us More' - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA), Nokia (NYSE:NOK)

On Tuesday, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang warned that the push to isolate China from advanced AI chips could go wrong. Huang Urges Balance Between American Leadership And Global Access At Nvidia's first developers' conference in Washington, Huang told the Donald Trump administration that the U.S. must lead in AI while keeping China's developer ecosystem within reach, reported Reuters. "We want America to win this AI race. No doubt about that," Huang stated, adding, "We want the world to be built on American tech stack. Absolutely the case." However, he said, "We also need to be in China to win their developers. A policy that causes America to lose half of the world's AI developers is not beneficial long term, it hurts us more." See Also: Trump in Talks To Appear On CBS' 60 Minutes Just Months After Securing Eye-Watering $16 Million Settlement: Report Nvidia Doubles Down On US Manufacturing And Strategic Partnerships Huang also announced Nvidia is building seven new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy, which has secured $500 billion in orders for advanced chips. The largest of the supercomputers will be built with Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) and include 100,000 of Nvidia's new Blackwell chips. The systems will support nuclear research, energy development and national defense initiatives. On the same day, Nvidia also unveiled new partnerships with Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) to advance 6G networks, with Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) and Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) on autonomous vehicles and with Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) to enhance logistics and AI infrastructure for government and enterprise clients. Nvidia's China Market Collapses As Tensions Escalate Huang's comments come as Washington continues to restrict exports of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips to China, citing national security concerns. Beijing, in turn, has reportedly urged major firms such as ByteDance and Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) to stop purchasing Nvidia hardware and turn to domestic suppliers like Huawei Technologies and Cambricon. Earlier this month, Huang revealed that Nvidia's market share in China had plunged from 95% to zero. "They've made it very clear that they don't want Nvidia to be there right now," Huang said at a news conference during the company's GTC developers event on Tuesday. "I hope that will change in the future because I think China is a very important market." Nvidia has also excluded China-related sales from its financial forecasts. Nvidia Is Building In America, But Warns Of Long-Term Risks Huang praised Trump's "America First" agenda for boosting domestic chip production on Tuesday. He noted that Nvidia is manufacturing in Arizona with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM) and assembling systems in Texas and California. But he contended that Nvidia requires access to roughly $50 billion in potential sales from China to finance its U.S.-based research and development and sustain the company's competitive edge, the report noted. Price Action: Nvidia shares gained 4.98% on Tuesday and increased another 1.69% in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro. Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings place Nvidia in the 97th percentile for Growth. Click here to see how it stacks up against AMD and other top semiconductor players. Photo Courtesy: Glen Photo via Shutterstock Read Next: Trump Turnberry Is 'Our Monalisa' Says Eric Trump As He Shrugs Off Millions In Losses -- 'We Don't Give A...' Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd$176.79-1.48%OverviewNOKNokia Oyj$7.9625.2%NVDANVIDIA Corp$204.436.76%ORCLOracle Corp$281.40-%PLTRPalantir Technologies Inc$190.150.51%STLAStellantis NV$11.313.38%TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd$302.201.32%UBERUber Technologies Inc$95.68-0.77%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Nvidia will build AI supercomputers for U.S. Energy Department, wants to get back into China

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang came to Washington on Tuesday with a message for the Trump administration: The U.S. can win the artificial intelligence battle if the world, including China's massive developer base, runs on Nvidia systems. In his address at the first Nvidia developers' conference held in Washington, Huang walked a fine line between praising President Donald Trump, whose "America First" agenda Huang credited with spurring greater investment in U.S. manufacturing and AI leadership, and risking further antagonism of China. Huang said the AI chip leader will build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy and had $500 billion in bookings for advanced chips, but also lamented that the Chinese government has shut it out of its market. Nvidia is at the core of the global AI rollout, and it is striking deals around the world while also navigating a U.S.-China trade war that could determine which country's technology is most used around the world.

Nvidia to build AI supercomputers for US Energy Department, signs...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that the artificial intelligence chip leader will build seven new supercomputers for the Energy Department, and said the company has $500 billion in bookings for its AI chips. The first company to be worth more than $4 trillion, Nvidia is at the core of the global rollout of AI. It is striking deals around the world while also navigating a US-China trade war that could determine which country's technology is most used around the world. Investors are looking for clarity on what chips the tech company will be able to sell to the vast Chinese market, but Huang kicked off a keynote address at the company's GTC event in the US capital by praising policy by President Trump while announcing new products and deals. These included network technology that will let Nvidia AI chips work with quantum computers. The supercomputers Nvidia is building for the Energy Department will in part help the United States maintain and develop its nuclear weapons arsenal. The supercomputers will also be used to research alternative energy sources such as nuclear fusion. The largest of the supercomputers for the Department of Energy will be built with Oracle and contain 100,000 of Nvidia's Blackwell chips. "Putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth completely changed the game," Huang said. "If this didn't happen, we could have been in a bad situation, and I want to thank President Trump for that." Nvidia shares were up 3.3% at $197.82 on Tuesday afternoon. Nvidia also announced new details with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia to target the AI communications market. Nvidia will invest $1 billion for a 2.9% stake in Nokia and it also introduced a new product line called Arc, designed to work with telecommunications equipment. Huang said Nvidia will work with Nokia to improve the power efficiency of the company's base stations for 6G, the next generation of wireless data technology. "We're going to take this new technology and we'll be able to upgrade millions of base stations around the world," Huang said. Altogether the company has $500 billion in bookings for its Blackwell and Rubin chips over the next five quarters, the CEO said. Nvidia also announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies, a company that works closely with the US government. However, the focus of Nvidia's partnership was on Palantir's commercial business, where Nvidia will help it speed up solving logistics problems for companies such as home improvement retailer Lowe's. Such corporate work was a longtime stronghold of Intel. Nvidia announced a new self-driving car technology platform called Hyperion. Huang said that Nvidia is partnering with Uber to create a network of Robotaxis. "This is going to be a new computing platform for us, and I'm expecting it to be quite successful," Huang said. "These announcements all show Nvidia's ability to extend its reach beyond its core data center customers," said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. "While these projects pale in comparison to the capex by the hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta, they could create new markets for Nvidia down the line." Huang took the stage in a packed conference hall as Trump continued his tour of Asia this week ahead of his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The flow of advanced technology between the two nations is likely to be at the center of trade discussions, with access to Nvidia's chips a key issue. Nvidia's annual GTC event is being held for the first time in Washington, DC, a sign that the company is pursuing work with the government and contractors clustered around the capital. At its last GTC in California in March, Nvidia laid out its chip road map for the next year. The US government is focused on AI and expanding its computing power. On Monday, Nvidia competitor Advanced Micro Devices unveiled a $1 billion partnership with the Department of Energy to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security. Former President Joe Biden clamped down on sales of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China, but Trump has wavered in his policy in his second term, at first restricting exports of Nvidia's AI chips designed for the China market before reversing course in July. Huang has argued that Nvidia needs access to some $50 billion in potential sales from the Chinese market to fund US-based research and development to maintain his company's edge. Reuters has previously reported that Chinese developers still want Nvidia's chips, despite pressure from Beijing to purchase domestic chips from Huawei Technologies Co. Nvidia outlined how it is making chips in Arizona at TSMC's facilities, and assembling servers in Texas and networking gear in California. "We are manufacturing in America again -- it is incredible. The first thing that President Trump asked me is, 'bring manufacturing back,'" Huang said.

Nvidia signs record contract with Washington and posts $500bn order book

On Tuesday, Nvidia announced the signing of a mega-contract with the US Department of Energy to build seven supercomputers for scientific research and the modernization of the nuclear arsenal. The largest of these, developed with Oracle, will incorporate 100,000 Blackwell chips, the company's latest generation of artificial intelligence processors. This announcement comes alongside a record order book of $500bn over the next five quarters, confirming Nvidia's position at the heart of the US strategy on AI and energy. At the GTC conference in Washington, CEO Jensen Huang praised President Donald Trump's energy policy, which he presented as a key factor in this massive deployment. Nvidia also unveiled a network technology capable of connecting its chips to quantum computers, as well as a strategic partnership with Nokia, accompanied by a $1bn investment in the joint development of 6G technologies. The group also introduced a range of products called Arc, designed to improve the energy efficiency of telecom infrastructures. The California-based company is forging alliances in a variety of areas, ranging from security and logistics, through an agreement with Palantir Technologies, to autonomous mobility, with the launch of the Hyperion platform in collaboration with Uber. These initiatives demonstrate Nvidia's desire to expand its influence beyond data centers. The stock is up nearly 5%, with investors welcoming the scale of the contracts signed and the consolidation of production on American soil, now largely based in Arizona, Texas and California.