Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that while the company is still awaiting approval for the sale of its previous-generation H200 products in China, Nvidia's Blackwell and next-generation Rubin chips will enter the Chinese market "in time."

"The H200 is competitive in the market. But that competitiveness won't last forever," Huang said during a Q&A session at CES 2026 in Las Vegas when asked by Nikkei Asia about the H200's competitiveness in the Chinese market.

Huang stated that to remain competitive in China, Nvidia needs to release other products, including the Blackwell and Rubin generation chips, "in time." He added that if Washington wants U.S. technology to remain globally competitive, U.S. regulations also need to change.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that he would allow the sale of H200 to "approved customers" in China, provided the U.S. receives 25% of those sales, but the Blackwell and new Rubins chips are not included in that deal.

Competition facing Nvidia

Nvidia is facing increasingly fierce competition from Chinese rivals, including tech giants like Huawei and several smaller startups. Jensen Huang has previously described Huawei as a "strong competitor."

"I think the sheer number of startups emerging in China, and the fact that many of them have gone public and achieved very, very good growth, reflects the dynamism and capability of China's tech industry," Huang said.

"I firmly believe that the Chinese tech market will continue to thrive and progress. And if we want to contribute to the Chinese market and provide valuable products and services, we must compete and continuously improve our technology," he added.

He stated that Nvidia will continue to launch new products in China "over time."

"I advocate that we should continue to maintain our competitiveness in the market."

Huang previously told reporters that Nvidia has ramped up production of its H200 chips for the Chinese market as the U.S. chipmaker awaits approval from Washington and Beijing.

"We have activated the supply chain, and H200s are flowing steadily into the production line," Huang said.

"In China, customer demand is high. Very high," he said, adding that the company is finalizing the details of its U.S. export license.

Nvidia CFO Colette Kress stated that the U.S. government is "actively working" to process the H200 export license.

She added, "We hope this can be done as soon as possible."

However, whether the H200 can be shipped to China depends on whether Beijing allows Nvidia to sell these chips in the world's second-largest AI market, and how many.

However, Mr. Huang said he doesn't expect explicit approval from Beijing, but rather hopes to gain tacit approval from the government through orders from Chinese customers.

"Ultimately, I expect we'll know everything through purchase orders," he said. "I don't expect any press releases or any big promotional campaigns. Just buyers. I'm looking forward to the buyers coming."

"Once the purchase orders are placed, everything will follow, because they have to abide by their rules and laws," Mr. Huang said. He added that he expects to receive orders "soon" after Washington approves the export license.

Both the H100 and H200 were banned from sale in China in 2024 after the administration of former US President Joe Biden tightened restrictions on the export of AI chips.

In response, Nvidia launched the H20 chip - a scaled-down version of the flagship H100 chip developed specifically for the Chinese market. However, in April of this year, the Trump administration began requiring Nvidia to obtain a license even for exporting this scaled-down chip.

As a condition of selling the downgraded chip to China, Nvidia agreed in August to pay the US government 15% of its H2O sales revenue.

But before Washington could move forward with the revenue-sharing agreement, Beijing accused Nvidia of violating China's antitrust laws in September. Jensen Huang stated that the company's market share in China has since plummeted from 95% to zero.

In his keynote address on Monday, Huang revealed more details about the next-generation Rubin chip, stating that the highly anticipated successor to its most advanced chip, Blackwell, is now in "full production."

Source: Compiled from Nikkei

View more at EASELINK