Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has raised urgent concerns with U.S. lawmakers over Huawei Technologies’ rapidly advancing AI chip capabilities, signaling a potential shift in the global AI hardware landscape, according to a senior U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee staff member.
In a closed-door session held Thursday, Nvidia executives met with members of the committee to discuss Huawei’s growing strength in artificial intelligence chip development. Among the main issues raised were the implications of ongoing U.S. export restrictions on Nvidia’s products to China, which may inadvertently accelerate demand for Huawei’s AI chips.
A senior committee staffer explained that if Chinese AI models like DeepSeek R1 were trained on Huawei’s chips — or if upcoming open-source AI models were optimized for them — it could significantly increase global demand for Huawei’s processors, challenging Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market.
In an official statement, Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo confirmed the meeting, noting that Huang emphasized the strategic importance of AI as critical infrastructure and advocated for stronger investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. He also reiterated Nvidia’s commitment to supporting U.S. policies aimed at protecting American tech leadership.
Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI GPUs, used in advanced applications like chatbots, AI image generators, and deep learning models, have faced escalating export restrictions since the administration of former President Donald Trump. In response, Nvidia developed China-specific chips that comply with evolving trade regulations.
However, the company recently revealed that it was asked to halt sales of its latest China-specific AI chip, the H20, a move that has opened doors for Huawei to fill the market gap. Chinese buyers had been aggressively purchasing these chips, largely due to the rising popularity of affordable AI models such as DeepSeek.
According to a report we published last week, Huawei is now preparing for mass production of advanced AI processors intended to rival Nvidia’s high-end offerings, further intensifying the U.S.-China technology rivalry.
