Nvidia navigates diplomatic tightrope amid China chip ban reports

The chief executive of Nvidia, which faces tight restrictions on selling its chips to China amid the U.S.-China battle over trade and tech, said he’s disappointed about the situation.

Jensen Huang said he expects to discuss the latest developments with President Trump at a state banquet hosted by the British government that they’ll be attending Wednesday night.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is restricted from exporting to China its most advanced chips, which are in demand for developing artificial intelligence. This week, Beijing regulators also targeted the company, accusing it of antitrust breaches stemming from a 2020 acquisition of an Israeli tech company.

Adding to the problems, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that China’s internet regulator is banning domestic tech companies from buying an Nvidia chip model tailored for the local market.

Asked about the report at a media briefing in London, Huang said he didn’t have a reaction, but added, “I think that we could only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be.”

China is the world’s second biggest AI computing market and Nvidia has contributed more than most companies, he said.

“I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out, you know, between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that, and we’re patient about it,” he said.

Huang said the company will continue to be “supportive” of both governments as they “sort through these geopolitical policies,” adding there’s “not very much anxiety there.”

Huang said he hasn’t yet spoken to Trump about what’s happened over the last few days, “but I’ll see him [Wednesday night], and he’ll probably ask me. I’ll probably say something similar.”

Nvidia’s job is to “serve those markets the best we can, if we can,” Huang said. “There are a lot of places we can’t go to. And it’s fine.”

The CEO is visiting London at the same time as Trump to unveil a flurry of new investments, including a deal to supply tens of thousands of its processor chips for data centers that will be part of the U.K. arm of Stargate, a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project led by OpenAI.

Chan writes for the Associated Press.