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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has praised Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models, calling them “world-class” in his trip to the country. His comments come at a time when Nvidia has received the approval to sell its H20 chips to China.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a supply chain expo in Beijing, Huang said, “Models like DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent, MiniMax, and Baidu Ernie bot are world class, developed here and shared openly [and] have spurred AI developments worldwide.”
He added, “China’s open-source AI is a catalyst for global progress, giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution.”
Nvidia To Resume Chip Exports to China
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the expo opening, Huang said, “The most recent change was really related to the constructive and positive discussions between the U.S. government and the Chinese government as it relates to export control discussions.
He added, “I have been assured that the licenses will come very fast. There are many order books already in.”
Huang Praises Chinese AI Models
To be sure, Chinese companies have seemed in a race to launch new low-cost AI models this year ever since DeepSeek stunned markets with its model developed at a reported cost of around $6 million. Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba, have announced several low-cost models that rival those from Western rivals.
Alibaba Doubles Down on AI
In March, Alibaba debuted its “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B,” which is a multimodal model in its Qwen series with the ability to process text, images, audio, and videos. It can also generate real-time text and natural speech responses.
In April, it launched its Qwen3 series, hybrid reasoning models which it says gels “the capabilities of fast, simple responses and deeper chain-of-thought reasoning into a single model.”
Earlier this year, Alibaba also announced a partnership with BWW, and the German auto giant will use its AI models in its upcoming cars in China. Apple has also partnered with Alibaba for AI, which will help the Cupertino-based company bring its “Apple Intelligence” features to China.
The unavailability of these AI-powered features was among the reasons iPhone sales in China fell last year, and the company lost its position as the largest smartphone company in the country. However, that partnership is reportedly facing scrutiny in the US.
During the Q4 2025 earnings call, Alibaba pointed to the strong growth in its AI business. Alibaba’s cloud business reported an 18% YoY rise in Q4 revenues, which the company said was “primarily driven by an even faster public cloud revenue growth, including the increasing adoption of AI-related products.”
Previously, Alibaba has vowed to invest $52 billion towards AI and cloud computing over the next three years, which happens to be the single largest investment in this field from a Chinese private company.
The US Chip Export Ban Had Hit Alibaba
Notably, the US export ban hit Alibaba’s business, and in November 2023, it scrapped the planned IPO of its cloud segment, blaming the US chip control restrictions for the decision. Notably, while Chinese tech giant Huawei has tried to fill the void left by the US export control restrictions, its chips are still a few years behind Nvidia.
Nvidia Also Lost Out on Business in China
Nvidia has been losing its market share, and the company has warned that it is losing its competitive edge in the country where it once had a dominant market share. During the fiscal Q1 2026 earnings call in May, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said, “Losing access to the China AI accelerator market, which we believe will grow to nearly $50 billion, would have a material adverse impact on our business going forward and benefit our foreign competitors in China and worldwide.”
There Seems to be an AI War Between the US and China
There is an apparent AI war between the US and China. While the former blocked companies from exporting top-end AI chips to China, citing possible military use, many, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, believe that the policy hasn’t succeeded.
During the Q1 earnings call, he said, “China’s AI moves on with or without U.S. chips. It has the compute to train and deploy advanced models. The question is not whether China will have AI; it already does. The question is whether one of the world’s largest AI markets will run on American platforms. Shielding Chinese chip makers from U.S. competition only strengthens them abroad and weakens America’s position. Export restrictions have spurred China’s innovation and scale.”
China is Backing Its AI Companies
China, which cracked down on its tech companies, especially Alibaba previously, is now backing its tech companies amid the AI war with the US. In February, Chinese President Xi Jinping met the country’s entrepreneurs, including Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma, at a symposium. Ma’s participation in the event with Jinping became all the more important as the Chinese billionaire was the face of China’s crackdown on its tech moguls, whom the Communist Party believed had grown too powerful.
China has been attempting to revive its sagging economy, which narrowly met the 2024 GDP growth target of 5% after a flurry of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures were unleashed in the second half of the year. The country took both monetary and fiscal measures to support its economy, which is suffering from structural issues ranging from slow growth in domestic consumption, an aging economy, a property market slump, and external risks emanating from tariffs on Chinese exports by several countries, including the US, which is its biggest trading partner.
China has set a 2025 GDP growth target of “around 5%.” The country appears on track to meet that goal, as the economy has expanded at an annualized pace of 5.3% in the first half of the year.
