Jensen Huang, chief executive officer (CEO) of NVIDIA, traveled around China to encourage his employees. Huang noted, "China has nurtured NVIDIA," indicating a commitment to the business there. Notably, Huang's visit to China coincides with the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump on the 20th.
According to reports from China's Xinlang and Jie Mian newspapers on the 20th, CEO Huang participated in the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) event for NVIDIA's Beijing branch at the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing on the afternoon of the 19th. It was Huang's first visit to China since January of last year. Although he was supposed to go directly to Beijing after visiting the Shenzhen branch on the 15th, he changed his schedule to stop by his hometown of Taiwan before heading to Beijing. Huang is expected to travel to Shanghai soon.
On that day, Huang expressed his affection for China. As a Taiwanese American, he began his speech in Chinese with, "Hello friends." He stated, "Many people may not know that NVIDIA has been present in the Chinese market for 25 years. At that time, it was an early stage of technological corporations emerging, and we were selling GeForce (NVIDIA's graphics card brand). Many Chinese researchers grew up playing electronic games with graphics cards."
Huang also added, "NVIDIA's global employee turnover rate is about 2%, but in China, it is only 0.9%. This means that if you join NVIDIA, you will grow old with me, and this is something I am very proud of." According to Huang, the turnover rate in the IT industry typically hovers around 10% and can sometimes approach 20%.
Huang emphasized that the number of Chinese developers using "CUDA," an artificial intelligence (AI) development platform that runs solely on NVIDIA products, has reached 1.5 million. He remarked, "For the past 20 years, we have contributed to the modernization of one of the world's top markets and countries (China) and consider it a great honor to be a part of your ecosystem."
On that day, Huang met with Chinese reporters to present the company's investment in China and the resulting achievements. According to Jie Mian, he cited GeForce, which has consistently been a bestseller in the Chinese market for several years, noting, "In some ways, China has nurtured NVIDIA, and NVIDIA has grown alongside China's technology industry."
There are projections that Huang will strengthen support for NVIDIA's business in China and Taiwan. In particular, the semiconductor industry speculates that NVIDIA's Asia-Pacific headquarters could be established in Taiwan following Huang's visit there. During his visit, Huang told local reporters, "We are paying attention to Taiwan's rich electronic supply chain ecosystem, and the final decision regarding the location for the Asia-Pacific headquarters will be announced at the Taipei International Computer Show (COMPUTEX) in June this year." China accounts for 17% of NVIDIA's revenue.
Huang's visit to China has garnered significant attention coinciding with the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Donald Trump. The U.S. is further tightening restrictions on semiconductor-centric technologies targeting China. On the 13th, it announced a limit on export quantities for NVIDIA's artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors to most countries, excluding allies such as South Korea, aiming to prevent China from circumventing U.S. export controls to access AI semiconductor technology. Instead of welcoming the new U.S. president, the head of a corporation at the center of U.S.-China tech conflicts is bolstering efforts in China. Unlike Huang, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are attending Trump's inauguration ceremony.
NVIDIA has already expressed a negative stance on the U.S. government's additional sanctions. Following the announcement of these sanctions, NVIDIA stated, "Regulations that restrict exports to most of the world will not reduce the risk of (AI semiconductor) abuse; rather, it will be a significant turning point threatening economic growth and U.S. leadership," adding, "It distorts the market and suppresses competition, which is the lifeblood of innovation."