In October 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang complained that what some policy makers in America think harms China, often ends up harming the US, and sometimes in even worse ways. In an interview with Citadel Securities, Huang said, “Before we leap towards policies that are hurtful to other people, take a step back and maybe reflect on what are the policies that are helpful to America. ” He lamented how the US chip giant’s share in China has fallen to almost Zero from 95%. “We went from 95% market share to 0%, and so I can’t imagine any policymaker thinking that that’s a good idea, that whatever policy we implemented caused America to lose one of the largest markets in the world,” he said.
Almost five months later, Nvidia chief financial officer (CFO) Colette M Kress gave an update on the company’s China business during the earnings call. She said that Nvidia is yet to recoup its lost sales in China, despite Washington easing some restrictions, and the company is sounding the alarm about rising competition from Chinese rivals. “While small amounts of H200 [semiconductor] products for China-based customers were approved by the US government, we have yet to generate any revenue,” Nvidia’s CFO Colette M. Kress said on an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript (and as reported by Reuters).
“We do not know whether any imports will be allowed into China,” she said.
Similar to CEO Huang, Kress urged the policy makers in the US to encourage every developer and business, including those in China, to use American technology. “Our competitors in China, bolstered by recent IPOs, are making progress and have the potential to disrupt the structure of the global AI industry over the long-term,” Kress said.
What’s hurting Nvidia in China
Chip sales have come under scrutiny from both Washington and Beijing amid an AI tech race between the two countries. Nvidia processors have become hot commodities in the AI race as well as political bargaining chips in the US-China trade war. On its part, China placed strict limits on exports of rare earths, a critical input for a wide range of advanced technologies, mimicking U. S. export rules on AI chips.
In April 2025, Nvidia said that the Trump administration blocked the sale of some of its AI chips to China without licenses and would require them for future sales. Then in August, the administration granted export licenses for certain Nvidia and AMD chips to China in exchange for 15% of the revenues.
US export controls made Nvidia develop a lower-capability chip for the Chinese markets called the H20. However, Chinese regulators have reportedly told domestic tech companies not to buy Nvidia chips that were designed to meet U.S. export requirements. Also, sales have stalled amid reports of security scrutiny in both countries, despite Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s lobbying in Washington, D.C. and a trip to China earlier this year.
Nvidia CEO called China out of picture for the company
For now, Huang told Citadel, all of Nvidia’s financial forecasts assume China will remain out of the picture. “If anything happens in China, which I hope it will, it’ll be a bonus,” he said. “But it’s a large market. China is the second largest computer market in the world. It is a vibrant ecosystem. I think it’s a mistake for the United States to not participate. So hopefully we’ll continue to explain and inform and hold out hope for a change in policy. ”
