Nvidia CEO Huang caught between US, China ‘larger agendas’
- China’s CAC directed ByteDance and Alibaba to cancel testing and orders of new Nvidia chip- FT
- Nvidia CEO says China, U.S. have larger agendas to work out
- Nvidia shares down ~3%
Sept 17 (Reuters) – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that Washington and Beijing “have larger agendas to work out” as the tech giant navigates the tricky politics of the U.S.-China trade war and tries to satisfy demand from companies worldwide hungry for the company’s crucial AI chips.
Huang was speaking in London after the Financial Times reported that China’s internet regulator has ordered top tech firms to halt purchases of the American company’s AI chips and cancel existing orders.
China’s reported move comes after a Reuters report earlier in September that said major Chinese tech firms want more of Nvidia’s crucial artificial intelligence chips despite being discouraged from purchasing them by Beijing’s regulators.
While many companies have been caught in the middle of the U.S.-China trade war, Nvidia (NVDA.O), is unique. It dominates the AI chip space and receives notable attention from both the White House and the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping, even as the world’s two largest economies have been at loggerheads over trade for most of this year.
Huang said at the press conference in London, in response to a question about China’s regulations,
We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,
“I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m patient about it.”
Shares of the company, valued at more than $4.2 trillion, were down 2.6% on Wednesday.
Nvidia has had to scramble to deal with several unexpected developments, most recently Beijing’s accusation that the company violated its anti-monopoly law in a preliminary probe into Nvidia’s business practices.
In mid-August, Trump engineered an unusual deal that granted Nvidia licenses to sell H20 chips to China – despite concerns about national security – in exchange for a 15% cut of those sales, just days after he said he would not make such a deal.
LOBBYING EFFORTS
Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, said:
Jensen Huang’s diplomatic comment about ‘larger agendas’ is CEO-speak for ‘We’re pawns in a digital Cold War,
Successive U.S. administrations have restricted China’s access to advanced chips, while Beijing has responded to the curbs by pressing domestic firms to turn away from American suppliers.
Amid the tumult, Nvidia has dramatically boosted its lobbying spending in Washington, hiring three new external firms last month with 21 lobbyists, according to U.S. Senate disclosures. It spent nearly $1.9 million on lobbying in the first half of 2025, well above the $640,000 it spent in all of last year.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has directed companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba (9988.HK), to terminate their testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
The fresh ban is stronger than the earlier guidance from regulators that focused on the H20, the previous version of Nvidia’s China-tailored AI chip, the report said.
Huang said in London,
We’ll continue to be supportive of the Chinese government and Chinese companies as they wish,
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Nvidia CEO Huang caught between US, China ‘larger agendas’, source
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