NVIDIA’s CEO Says U.S. Can’t Shake Off China’s Chip Chain in 10 Years

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, predicted that the Biden administration’s semiconductor policy aiming to decouple from China will be challenging to achieve for at least the next decade.

At The New York Times DealBook Summit held on November 29 (local time), he stated that efforts to make the U.S. semiconductor supply chain independent are necessary for national security. However, he also noted that complete independence from the Chinese supply chain is impossible in 10 to 20 years.

When asked if NVIDIA should continue doing business with China, he responded, “We try to do business with everybody we can.” He added, “On the other hand, our national security matters. Our national competitiveness matters.”

Following its third-quarter earnings announcement, NVIDIA warned during a conference call that the impact on fourth-quarter sales is inevitable due to the Biden administration’s export restrictions on China. Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an expansion of its export ban list to suppress the development of China’s AI industry. It even included low-end semiconductors. This is a significant intensification from the draft export control released last October, and NVIDIA has been pointed out as the biggest victim of this export control in the industry.

NVIDIA reported third-quarter sales of $18.12 billion, a threefold increase compared to last year’s period ($5.931 billion). This significantly exceeded market expectations of $16.18 billion. Earnings per share skyrocketed by 593% to $4.02, surpassing the same period last year ($0.58) and exceeding market expectations of $3.37.

CEO Huang commented on the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), noting that there is no doubt that the speed of AGI development is accelerating. He predicted that we would see the emergence of powerful AGI surpassing human intelligence within the next five years.

Regarding the recent OpenAI incident, Huang expressed his satisfaction that OpenAI has stabilized and voiced his hope for its continued stability. He praised OpenAI as a great team and indicated that the incident had caused him to reconsider the significance of corporate governance. He went on to reflect, speculating about NVIDIA’s history, saying, “NVIDIA has faced many hardships to reach its current position three decades after its establishment.

It raises questions about the potential outcomes had the company not been established correctly.”

When asked to rank AI companies like Google, Microsoft (MS), and Meta, who are leading the race in the AI field, he briefly responded, “I will not rank my friends.”

By. Cho Yoo Jin