Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sparked a diplomatic firestorm Wednesday after telling the Financial Times that "China is going to win the AI race," only to issue a damage-control statement hours later softening his position. The comments came as his company faces a complete freeze in Chinese market access, making this his most provocative geopolitical statement yet during ongoing U.S.-China tech tensions.
The tech world's most powerful CEO just delivered his most controversial assessment of the global AI race - and then immediately tried to walk it back. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang's stark prediction that "China is going to win the AI race" sent shockwaves through Washington and Silicon Valley before the company scrambled to soften the message just hours later.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Financial Times' Future of AI Summit in London, Huang warned that China's structural advantages - particularly lower energy costs and what he called looser regulatory constraints - would ultimately give Beijing the edge over American AI development. The comments represent his most direct challenge yet to U.S. tech supremacy assumptions.
But the geopolitical implications hit fast. Within hours, Nvidia released a notably different statement on Huang's official X account: "As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in AI. It's vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide." The rapid pivot suggests the initial comments may have been more candid than calculated.
The timing couldn't be more loaded. Nvidia currently faces a complete freeze in Chinese market access after Beijing launched a national security review of the company's AI chips. Huang has repeatedly stated that his firm's China market share has been reduced to exactly zero, a dramatic fall for what was once a crucial revenue stream.
The CEO's original comments came just as evidence mounts that his lobbying efforts with the Trump administration have stalled. Following meetings with President Trump in July, it initially appeared Huang had secured some relief from export restrictions. Nvidia and AMD had even agreed to pay Washington 15% of their Chinese revenues from sales of modified AI processors.
