Despite escalating tensions between the US and China, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, plans to travel to China in June to meet with tech executives in the world's biggest chip market. Among the companies on his itinerary are gaming leader Tencent Holdings and TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd.
Nvidia is emerging as a critical player in the booming field of artificial intelligence, but its position in China has been complicated by geopolitics. Last year, the Biden administration unveiled US sanctions that prevent the company from selling its most advanced AI chipsets to Chinese customers, including Tencent and ByteDance. However, Nvidia quickly retooled its lineup after the ban to create new chips for the Chinese market that it says are compliant with the restrictions. Nvidia's chipsets are considered the gold standard for training AI systems.
Huang is hardly alone in courting Chinese customers, as many corporate chieftains are taking advantage of China's post-Covid reopening to visit the world's No. 2 economy. China remains a key market for many of the world's biggest companies, and many economists expect growth to re-accelerate over the course of 2023.
On Huang's itinerary in China are EV makers Li Auto and BYD Auto, as well as Xiaomi Corp. Huang hasn't finalized his plans, and details of his visit could change. Nonetheless, Huang's visit signals the importance of China's chip market to Nvidia, even in the face of US sanctions and political tensions.