Blackwell AI chips remain off-limits to China, Nvidia CEO confirms

Jensen Huang, the head of Nvidia, said he is not talking with any firms in China about selling the company’s new Blackwell AI chips.

He spoke on Friday in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan, where he made it clear the company is not preparing shipments and is not arranging any return to the Chinese market.

“There’re no active discussions. Currently, we’re not planning to ship anything to China,” Jensen said. He added that it will depend on China to change its own position if the market wants the company’s hardware again. “It’s up to China when they would like Nvidia products to go back to serve the Chinese market. I look forward to them changing their policy.”

Jensen flew into Taiwan ahead of meetings with TSMC, a long-time manufacturing partner. He is set to attend TSMC’s annual sports day event on Saturday. His visit to Taiwan is one more stop in a global tour. Last week, he held meetings in Washington and South Korea, where he met companies that want access to Nvidia’s artificial intelligence hardware expertise. The 62‑year‑old founder has been traveling as demand for advanced computing systems continues to build across industries and regions.

Huang continues world tour as Nvidia leads AI race

The company has added about $1 trillion to its market cap within a few months, becoming the first $5 trillion company in history.

Even though the stock has lost momentum recently, Nvidia still ranks as the most valuable company in the world, ahead of Apple and Microsoft.

Jensen is working to widen the use of AI hardware and reduce fear that the current wave of investment might form a bubble.

Many firms are building data centers and buying specialized chips, and Huang wants to show that the spending will produce real results.

At the same time, competition is growing. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom are both developing their own hardware to profit from the AI boom.

These companies are aiming at the same corporate buyers looking to deploy faster training systems and large‑scale computing clusters.

Nvidia remains blocked from selling high‑end AI chips in China. A recent trade agreement between the U.S. and China did not include approval for Blackwell chip sales. Officials in the Trump administration have said that allowing such shipments is not being considered at this time.

During an earnings call in August, Jensen explained that if the chips could be shipped into the Chinese market, the company could pursue a $50 billion opportunity. He said demand for AI computing in China is growing fast, at a rate of about 50% per year.

The setback has led to concerns among investors on Wall Street.

Some are worried that heavy spending on hardware, data centers, and AI infrastructure may not deliver new revenue large enough to justify the investments.

They fear that the expectations placed on AI systems may be ahead of real commercial results, especially with major markets such as China not currently available for Nvidia’s strongest chips.

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