By Lee Ying Shan
Publication Date: 2026-05-21 00:54:00
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang waves after a welcome ceremony for US President Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company has “largely conceded” China’s artificial intelligence chip market to Huawei, as U.S. export restrictions continue to reshape the global AI semiconductor landscape.
Huang’s comments came as Nvidia reported another blockbuster quarter, with revenue surging 85% to $81.62 billion from $44.06 billion a year earlier. The company also unveiled an $80 billion share buyback program and raised its dividend.
However, China remained a key flashpoint.
“The demand in China is quite large,” Huang told CNBC’s Sara Eisen. “Huawei is very, very strong. They had a record year, they’ll likely, very likely, have an extraordinary year coming up, and their local ecosystem of chip companies are doing quite well, because we’ve evacuated that market.”
“We’ve really largely conceded that market to them,” he added.
The remarks underscore how Washington’s tightening restrictions on advanced AI chip exports have accelerated Beijing’s push toward semiconductor self-sufficiency.
The Chinese market once accounted for at least one-fifth of Nvidia’s data center revenue. However, the company has effectively been shut out of the market after the Trump administration told Nvidia in April that it would need a license to export chips to China and to a handful of other…
