In an announcement on Wednesday, NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, revealed the company’s close collaboration with the US government to ensure that its new chips for the Chinese market adhere to export restrictions.
The California-based AI chip designer has held a dominant position, capturing over 90% of China’s $7 billion AI chip market. However, recent US curbs on chip exports are expected to open avenues for Chinese competitors.
Earlier reports from Reuters indicated that NVIDIA had informed its Chinese customers of a delay in launching a new AI chip focused on the Chinese market, now slated for the coming year’s first quarter.
While Huang did not confirm the Reuters article, he emphasized NVIDIA’s concerted efforts to align its products with US regulations during a press conference in Singapore.
Huang stated, “NVIDIA has been working closely with the US government to create products that comply with its regulations. Our plan now is to continue working with the government to develop a new set of products that comply with the new regulations with certain limits.”
He acknowledged the need for market input and recognized Huawei as a formidable competitor.
NVIDIA had previously warned of a substantial decline in fourth-quarter sales in China following the implementation of the new US rules.
Huang noted that while China traditionally contributed around 20 percent of NVIDIA’s revenue, predicting the impact of the new US export restrictions on this percentage remained challenging.
In a separate development, Huang revealed ongoing discussions with Singapore regarding potential significant investments. NVIDIA is also exploring collaboration with the city-state to contribute to developing its large language model, Sealion.
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) recently announced a S$70 million ($52 million) initiative to create Southeast Asia’s first large language model. Huang highlighted Singapore’s vibrant AI ecosystem and its role as a significant data center for various Asian markets.
