Jensen Huang: China Could Threaten US Technology Dominance

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has warned of a serious potential threat to the United States’ dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This warning comes amid the development of AI technology by Chinese companies, which is increasingly independent and may no longer rely on US-made technology. In a recent interview on the Dwarkesh Podcast, Huang highlighted the latest AI model from the Chinese company DeepSeek, which he believes could alter the direction of global AI industry competition. The AI model named DeepSeek V4 is touted to run using Huawei’s Ascend chips, rather than Nvidia chips, which have long been widely used in AI development. “The day DeepSeek first runs on Huawei technology will be a bad outcome for our country (the US),” Huang stated. He added that if global AI models begin to be developed and run optimally on non-US technology, this could weaken America’s dominance in the AI ecosystem. “Imagine if that model is optimised for Huawei and their architecture. That would put us (America) in a disadvantageous position,” he further remarked. On the other hand, Huang also emphasised that AI advancements are not solely determined by hardware strength, but also by innovations in software and algorithms. However, if Chinese companies can begin developing advanced AI with their own technology as mentioned by Huang, that dependency could diminish. If the dependency decreases, the US position as a leader in AI could also weaken. This simultaneously opens opportunities for other countries, including China, to take a larger role and shift US dominance. Huang himself believes that the US government should implement more balanced policies regarding technology export restrictions to China. According to him, policies that are too strict risk pushing Chinese companies to develop their own alternatives, which could ultimately harm the US AI industry. “Why doesn’t the US create more balanced regulations so Nvidia can win globally, instead of handing over the world market? Why does the US want to relinquish most of the global market?” Huang stated.