Nvidia CEO lavishes praise on China in Beijing, drawing rock-star reception
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The head of America's most valuable company delivered a love letter to China while visiting Beijing, extolling the country's technological advances and praising its 'best-in-the-world" electric vehicles.
Jensen Huang, chief executive of artificial-intelligence chip designer Nvidia, spoke a day after the Trump administration allowed the company to resume selling one of its advanced AI chips to Chinese customers.
The decision, part of a trade truce in which China agreed to speed up exports of rare-earth minerals, opens the door for Nvidia to step up its business in China again despite criticism from some in Congress that giving expanded access to advanced U.S. technology could benefit Beijing's military and pose a national-security risk for America.
Huang rejected such views at a news conference, which he interrupted from time to time so he could autograph Chinese reporters' clothing. 'There's always room in any house for two people, don't you think?" he said.
The CEO said he was hoping to get approval to keep updating Nvidia's offerings for the Chinese market. He expressed confidence that his meetings with top officials in Beijing, including the vice premier, wouldn't bother President Trump.
When he visited Trump last week, Huang said, the president 'was delighted to help celebrate a monumental day for Nvidia"—it became the first company to top $4 trillion in market capitalization—and 'was telling everybody about that." The CEO said he advised Trump that he was heading to Beijing and the president responded, 'Have a great trip."
Huang has become a frequent visitor to both Washington and Beijing. Unlike most politicians and officials in Washington, Huang heaped praise on China while avoiding issues such as its military expansion.
'When you see me in the United States, you must think you went back in time. You wouldn't even understand my life—it's too strange," Huang said to a Chinese reporter's question, citing ubiquitous smartphone payments in China in comparison with Americans' continued use of cash. 'You are so advanced in technology adoption."
Earlier in the day, Huang, who was born in Taiwan but is a U.S. citizen, swapped his signature leather jacket for traditional Chinese-style attire and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of a government-backed business fair, partly in Chinese.
'China's supply chain is a miracle," Huang said. 'The heroes of China's superfast innovations are your researchers, developers and entrepreneurs."
At the news conference, he took issue with U.S. policy under both the Biden and Trump administrations that has effectively barred imports of most Chinese EVs through high tariffs.
He said he met the chief executive of Chinese EV and smartphone maker Xiaomi, whose EVs just hit the market last year and have already built up monthslong waiting lists. Xiaomi is a 'miracle of a company," he said. 'The technology inside is the best in the world."
Asked by a Chinese reporter if he would buy one, Huang said, 'I would love to. It's unfortunately not available in the United States, but that's our misfortune, not yours."
Write to Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com
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