Huang Renxun: Nvidia Has 'Basically Given Up' on China's AI Chip Market

NVIDIA's CEO, Huang Renxun, stated during an interview with CNBC after the release of the company's financial report that due to the continuous tightening of U.S. export controls, NVIDIA has "essentially given up" on the Chinese artificial intelligence chip market and has ceded it to Huawei. This marks the most straightforward expression of the losses from its China strategy by the world's largest chip company to date.

"The demand in China is enormous," Huang Renxun said, "Huawei is very, very powerful. They set records last year and are likely to have an extraordinary year this year as well. Since we have exited that market, their local chip enterprise ecosystem is also booming. We have essentially ceded that market to them."

Revenue Surges by 85% in One Quarter, China Becomes the Largest Shadow

These remarks were made when NVIDIA announced another strong financial report. The company's revenue for the quarter soared by 85% year-on-year, jumping from $4.406 billion last year to $8.162 billion, while also announcing an $80 billion stock buyback plan and increasing dividends. Despite the impressive performance, the absence of the Chinese market remains a core risk of concern for investors.

China once contributed at least one-fifth of NVIDIA's data center revenue. However, since the Trump administration required NVIDIA to apply for permits to export chips to China and some other countries starting in April this year, the company has essentially been isolated from this vast market. Huang Renxun admitted that NVIDIA's market share in China's high-end training chip market has dropped from about 95% before the sanctions to "close to zero".

In the interview, Huang Renxun was cautious about the near-term prospects of China's market reopening, stating that he had told analysts and investors that he "did not hold any expectations" for approval to sell advanced chips in China. "I have no expectations, which is why I have set expectations to zero in all my communications with analysts and investors," he said.

China's Chip Exports Surge, Industry Capability Notably Leaps

The market space that NVIDIA has vacated is intersecting with the overall leap trajectory of China's semiconductor industry. The latest data from the General Administration of Customs of China shows that in April 2026, China's integrated circuit exports reached $3.1085 billion in a single month, a year-on-year increase of 100.1%, achieving double growth. The cumulative export value for the first four months is approximately $10.35 billion, a year-on-year increase of 83.7%, accounting for 12.2% of the total export value of mechanical and electrical products during the same period.

It is worth noting that China's chip export growth rate has accelerated month by month this year: from January to February, it increased by 72.6% year-on-year, climbed to 84.92% in March, and in April, it directly broke through the 100% mark. Integrated circuits accounted for as much as 8.7% of the total export value of $3.594 billion in April, surpassing mobile phones and automatic data processing equipment, and for the first time became the single commodity category with the highest export value in China.

In terms of export categories, memory chips contributed the most, with a growth rate as high as 174.2% in the first three months of this year, indicating that China has occupied a pivotal position in the global supply system for high-value memory chips.

Huawei's Market Share Rapidly Expands

Market research data shows that in 2025, in China's AI accelerator server market, the share of domestic chips has climbed to 41%, with Huawei leading the domestic camp, accounting for about 20% of the overall market share, and holding about 49% of all domestic manufacturers. Bernstein Research predicts that with NVIDIA facing further restrictions, Huawei's share in China's AI chip market will break through 50% by 2026, while NVIDIA's share will shrink dramatically from about 39% to 8%.

Huawei's Ascend 910C has begun large-scale production in the first quarter of 2025, and its performance is said to reach about 60% of NVIDIA's H100. Huawei also announced a three-year roadmap for the Ascend series: Ascend 950PR and 950DT to be launched in 2026, Ascend 960 in 2027, and Ascend 970 in 2028, adhering to a "one generation per year, doubling computation power" iteration pace, and is