Nvidia founder Jensen Huang warns about China’s resolve to build its own advanced semiconductors
- The Taiwan-born American entrepreneur says mainland China has dedicated a ‘massive’ amount of resources to build its own high-end chips
- Nvidia and its US peers must ‘run very fast’ to stay ahead of Chinese competitors, Huang says during Computex Taipei
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang Jen-hsun said China’s ability to catch up in chip technology should not be underrated, as the country pours massive resources into shoring up the sector amid mounting export restrictions by the US and its allies.
The world’s most valuable chip maker, which has been barred by Washington from selling its most advanced chips to customers in China, must “run very fast” to stay competitive, Huang told reporters at a round table at Computex Taipei, an annual technology industry expo, on Tuesday.
“Whatever the regulations are … of course we will absolutely comply, but I think China will use the opportunity to foster their local entrepreneurs, and that’s why there are so many graphics processing unit start-ups in China,” Huang was quoted as saying by Nikkei Asia and several Taiwanese media outlets.
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Graphics processing units (GPUs) have simpler architecture than central processing units at the heart of most personal computers, making the former easier to design.
“If you weren’t in the chip industry and you wanted to start a chip company, what company would you start? You would start a GPU [company]. And there’s a whole bunch of GPU start-ups in China,” Huang reportedly said.
“The amount of resources that has been dedicated to this area in China … is quite massive, so you can’t underestimate them.”