Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised China’s AI models, just as the company moves to resume selling its key AI chip there.
At a Beijing supply chain expo on June 11, 2025, Huang spotlighted Chinese models like DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent, MiniMax, and Baidu’s Ernie bot. He called them “world class” and credited their open sharing for driving global AI progress.
Huang said over 1.5 million developers in China currently build on Nvidia tech. 
DeepSeek shocked investors early this year by undercutting OpenAI on AI development costs despite U.S. chip export restrictions. The startup’s parent reportedly stockpiled Nvidia chips ahead of those limits.
Nvidia stopped shipments of its H20 AI chip to China in April due to U.S. government rules. On Tuesday, the company said it expected to restart shipments soon, following U.S. assurances.
Huang revealed Nvidia lost $2.5 billion in sales last quarter due to restrictions and expects an $8 billion hit in the current quarter.
He also warned U.S. curbs could benefit Huawei, which stands to gain from limited Western AI chip access.
Jensen Huang is on his third China trip in 2025.
He praised China’s open-source AI approach, where code is freely shared, unlike U.S. players like OpenAI. Alibaba-backed Moonshot recently released Kimi K2, claiming to beat ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude on some coding tests.
Huang said:
"China’s open-source AI is a catalyst for global progress, giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution."
"Open-source technology is also key for AI safety and enables international cooperation on standards."
He highlighted China’s AI powering apps like Tencent’s WeChat, Alibaba’s Taobao, ByteDance’s Douyin, and Meituan’s delivery service.
The U.S. export restrictions began tightening three years ago over concerns about tech aiding China’s defense. Huang pushed back against fears China’s military would misuse AI chips and stressed global access is essential to lead in AI.
After recent U.S.-China talks in London, some export restrictions are easing. Meanwhile, Beijing has resumed rare earth exports to the U.S.
Sources: CNBC, ThinkChina, SCMP
