Nvidia Flags Growing Huawei AI Ambitions to U.S. Lawmakers

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (pictured) has privately raised concerns about Huawei’s expanding artificial intelligence capabilities during a closed-door meeting with U.S. lawmakers, according to a senior congressional staff source.

The conversation, which took place on Thursday with members of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, reportedly focused on how restrictions placed on Nvidia’s AI chips in China could inadvertently bolster Huawei’s position in the market.

One specific concern involved Huawei’s AI chips being used to train large language models like DeepSeek R1 — a Chinese-developed AI chatbot — or future open-source AI models that could be heavily optimized for Huawei hardware. “If DeepSeek R1 had been trained on Huawei chips, or a future open-source Chinese model had been optimized for them, that would risk creating a global market demand for Huawei chips,” a congressional staff source told Reuters.

Nvidia’s Balancing Act in China

Nvidia’s AI chips are widely regarded as the industry standard for training advanced AI models, from conversational chatbots to image generators and enterprise AI solutions. However, the company has faced a string of U.S. export restrictions since the Trump administration first imposed them on cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

To navigate these restrictions, Nvidia has designed modified chips for the Chinese market that comply with regulatory limits. Most recently, Nvidia introduced its H20 chip — a product tailored to avoid triggering export bans while still addressing China’s massive AI infrastructure needs.

But last month, Nvidia disclosed that it had been asked to halt sales of the H20 chip to China, as U.S. officials continue to tighten AI hardware restrictions. In the meantime, Chinese companies — including Huawei — have moved to fill the vacuum.

Huawei’s Growing AI Footprint

Huawei, which has faced its own U.S. trade restrictions for years, has increasingly pivoted toward AI chip development and high-performance computing. According to a Reuters report last month, Huawei is preparing to ramp up shipments of its Ascend series AI chips, which are designed to compete directly with Nvidia’s offerings in the Chinese market.

This shift could reshape the balance of power in the global AI hardware race, particularly as demand for generative AI accelerates worldwide.

The Geopolitics of AI Infrastructure

In an official statement, Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo confirmed the meeting, noting that Jensen Huang discussed “the strategic importance of AI as national infrastructure and the need to invest in U.S. manufacturing.” He also reaffirmed Nvidia’s support for U.S. government efforts to advance American technology leadership.

The developments highlight how AI infrastructure has become a key geopolitical battleground, with chipmakers like Nvidia caught in the crossfire of U.S.-China tech tensions.