US and China have larger agendas to resolve, says Nvidia CEO Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that Washington and Beijing "have larger agendas to work out" as the tech giant navigates the tricky politics of the US-China trade war and tries to satisfy demand from companies worldwide hungry for the company's crucial AI chips. 

Huang was speaking in London after the Financial Times reported that China's internet regulator has ordered top tech firms to halt purchases of the American company's AI chips and cancel existing orders. 

China's reported move comes after a Reuters report earlier in September that said major Chinese tech firms want more of Nvidia's crucial artificial intelligence chips despite being discouraged from purchasing them by Beijing's regulators. 

While many companies have been caught in the middle of the US-China trade war, Nvidia is unique. It dominates the AI chip space and receives notable attention from both the White House and the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping, even as the world's two largest economies have been at loggerheads over trade for most of this year. 

"We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be," Huang said at the press conference in London, in response to a question about China's regulations. "I'm disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I'm patient about it." 

Shares of the world's most valuable company were down nearly 3 per cent. 

Nvidia has had to scramble to deal with several unexpected developments, most recently Beijing's accusation that the company violated its anti-monopoly law in a preliminary probe into Nvidia's business practices. 

In mid-August, Trump engineered an unusual deal that granted Nvidia licenses to sell H20 chips to China - despite concerns about national security - in exchange for a 15 per cent cut of those sales, just days after he said he would not make such a deal. 

LOBBYING EFFORTS 

"Jensen Huang's diplomatic comment about 'larger agendas' is CEO-speak for 'We're pawns in a digital Cold War,'" said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors. 

Successive US administrations have restricted China's access to advanced chips, while Beijing has responded to the curbs by pressing domestic firms to turn away from American suppliers. 

Amid the tumult, Nvidia has dramatically boosted its lobbying spending in Washington, hiring three new external firms last month with 21 lobbyists, according to US Senate disclosures. It spent nearly $1.9 million on lobbying in the first half of 2025, well above the $640,000 it spent in all of last year. 

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has directed companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to terminate their testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. 

The fresh ban is stronger than the earlier guidance from regulators that focused on the H20, the previous version of Nvidia's China-tailored AI chip, the report said. 

"We'll continue to be supportive of the Chinese government and Chinese companies as they wish," Huang said in London. 

CHINA SALES PRESSURED 

The restrictions could further dent Nvidia's business in China, one of the biggest markets for semiconductors, which made up 13 per cent of Nvidia's total sales last year. 

"In today's global tech scene, multi-nationals like Nvidia are expected to code-switch between Washington's national security doctrines and Beijing's techno-sovereignty demands, all while keeping shareholders happy," Schulman said. 

Even after Trump's August agreement of a 15 per cent cut, the chipmaker said it has not sent any H20 chips to China and the US has yet to come up with rules on how to get the payment. 

Meanwhile, Nvidia's new RTX6000D chip, tailored for the Chinese market, has seen only lukewarm demand, with the chip being seen as not cost-effective and some major tech firms opting not to place orders, Reuters reported on Tuesday. 

FT on Wednesday reported that several companies have indicated they would order tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D and also started testing and verification work with Nvidia's server suppliers before telling them to stop the work after receiving the CAC order. 

Alibaba, ByteDance and the CAC did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.