Nvidia Chief Warns US of AI Threat from China
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed serious concerns about the future of American dominance in artificial intelligence. During an interview on the Dwarkesh Podcast, he highlighted developments at DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company increasingly independent from US technology.
Huang’s principal concern centres on reports that DeepSeek’s latest model, DeepSeek V4, will likely run on Huawei’s Ascend chips rather than Nvidia chips, which have long been the backbone of global AI development.
“The day when DeepSeek first runs on Huawei technology, that will be a bad outcome for our country,” Huang stated.
He added that if global AI models begin to be optimised for non-US architectures, America’s position in the AI ecosystem could be undermined, potentially allowing China to assume a greater role.
Chinese companies are combining multiple chips simultaneously, optimising software efficiency, and employing techniques such as Mixture-of-Experts to boost performance without relying on the most advanced hardware. Combined with a large pool of AI experts and relatively low energy costs, the results remain competitive.
Huang emphasised that AI competition is no longer solely about who possesses the most advanced chips, but also about software innovation, system efficiency, and control over the broader ecosystem.
Huang also criticised the US government’s approach, which he views as excessively stringent in restricting technology exports to China. According to him, overly strict policies actually drive Chinese companies to build their own alternatives, which could ultimately harm the US industry.
“Why doesn’t the US create more balanced regulations so Nvidia can win globally, rather than handing over the global market?” he stressed.
The situation is further complicated by the inconsistency in US policy itself, with restrictions on Chinese AI companies being tightened on one side whilst loosening slightly in certain aspects of chip supply on the other.
If DeepSeek succeeds in developing an AI model that runs entirely on Huawei chips, it could represent a turning point in the global AI industry.