Nvidia CEO says it's unlikely that Chinese military will use US AI chips

[SAN FRANCISCO] Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang said the US government should not be concerned about the Chinese military using the company's products to improve capabilities.

Washington addressed the biggest concerns by increasing restrictions on US technology exports to Asian countries, Han said the Chinese military would avoid using US technology due to the risks associated with doing so.

“There's no need to worry,” he said in an interview aired on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS Sunday (July 13th).

“They can't simply rely on it,” he added. “Of course, it could be restricted at any time.”

Huang and his colleagues lost billions of US dollars in revenue under increasingly strict rules designed to keep China out of access to its most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Washington's successive administrations argue that the free use of the most capable components poses a risk to national security.

Nvidia's CEO, who was in Washington last week before his trip to Beijing, claims that the strategy will fail as it will drive growth in China's domestic capacity, comparable to what was ultimately created by the US technology industry.

Nvidia and her colleagues say US companies should be allowed to ship to the world's largest market of semiconductors to maintain the center of AI development.

Fans met with President Donald Trump last week to make his point again, praised the administration's push to increase domestic semiconductor production. Nvidia and others rely on manufacturing facilities of Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers, most of which are located on their home islands, just off mainland China.

Trump touted Nvidia's success and growth, becoming the first US company to reach a market capitalization of USD 4 trillion. Details of the White House meeting between the two have not been made public, but so far, government officials and politicians on both sides have cemented not to increase access to Chinese companies. Bloomberg