Nvidia CEO Says Company Has "Largely Conceded" China AI Chip Market to Huawei as Revenue Surges 85%

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company has "largely conceded" China's artificial intelligence chip market to Huawei, even as the semiconductor giant reported quarterly revenue of $81.62 billion — an 85% increase from $44.06 billion a year earlier.

The remarks, made in an interview with CNBC's Sara Eisen, came as U.S. export restrictions have effectively shut Nvidia out of one of its historically significant markets, accelerating Beijing's drive toward semiconductor self-sufficiency.

"The demand in China is quite large," Huang told CNBC. "Huawei is very, very strong. They had a record year, they'll likely, very likely, have an extraordinary year coming up, and their local ecosystem of chip companies are doing quite well, because we've evacuated that market."

"We've really largely conceded that market to them," he added.

China once accounted for at least one-fifth of Nvidia's data center revenue. The Trump administration told Nvidia in April that it would need a license to export chips to China and a handful of other countries, effectively barring the company from the market.

Huang struck a cautious tone on the prospects of any near-term reversal, saying the company had advised analysts and investors to "expect nothing" regarding approvals to sell advanced chips into the country.

"I don't have any expectation, which is the reason why we put all of our guidance, all of our numbers, all the expectations that I've set with all of our analysts and investors to invest nothing, to expect nothing," Huang said.

Still, Huang indicated the company has not abandoned hope of returning. "We would be more than delighted to serve the market," he said. "We have a lot of customers there, we have a lot of partners there, and we've been there for 30 years."

Huang was a last-minute addition to President Donald Trump's China summit last week, though the visit did little to resolve Nvidia's market access questions. Some Chinese companies — including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com — reportedly received U.S. Commerce Department approval to purchase H200 chips. However, a U.S. trade representative said chip export controls were not part of last week's bilateral discussions, suggesting any meaningful easing may remain distant.

Along with its earnings, Nvidia announced an $80 billion share buyback program and raised its dividend — moves that signaled confidence in its financial position even as the China question lingers.

The results sent shares of SoftBank Group surging more than 16% on Thursday, reversing five consecutive sessions of losses. SoftBank is closely tied to AI-sector performance through its stake in Arm Holdings, whose chip designs are widely used in AI servers, as well as its investment in OpenAI. The Japanese conglomerate has invested more than $30 billion in OpenAI, with investment gains in the company totaling $45 billion in the year ended March.

Arm Holdings closed more than 15% higher in U.S. trading hours. Analysts at CreditSights, a unit of Fitch Ratings, last week reiterated an "outperform" recommendation on SoftBank Group debt, noting that a rally in Arm Holdings shares had materially strengthened the conglomerate's balance sheet.

Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, said renewed optimism around a potential OpenAI listing also contributed to SoftBank's sharp move, adding that the magnitude of the session's gains was notable given the company's heavy exposure to AI-related assets.

Huang described Nvidia's broader ambition in expansive terms, outlining what he called an AI industry "five-layer cake" spanning energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and applications. He also said he was directing Nvidia's growing cash reserves first toward its supply chain. "As we're growing hundreds of billions of dollars at a time, we have to support our supply chain so that they are able to support our growth," he said.

Whether Washington will ultimately carve out any pathway for Nvidia to re-enter China — and on what terms — remains the central question hanging over the company's long-term revenue ceiling.

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