The U.S. has relaxed the export of Nvidia Blackwell to the Middle East. Jen-Hsun Huang: Hope for future easing of restrictions on China.

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang pointed out in a recent interview that the company currently does not include China in its sales outlook in financial forecasts, setting it to “zero”. He also emphasized that China remains an important market, and NVIDIA hopes to compete locally again in the future. Recently, the U.S. eased Blackwell chip exports to the Middle East but still requires strict prevention of chips being redirected to China. In response, Huang stated that NVIDIA would comply with all regulations, but still hopes the U.S. will reopen exports to China, emphasizing that the company can maintain the highest standards in technology and management controls.

China's demand is sluggish, and NVIDIA's financial forecast is set at “zero”.

The host first mentioned the statement made by NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress at the earnings call, pointing out that the H20 chip had no “substantial sales” in the Chinese market last quarter. The reason is that demand in China was below expectations; even though the products can be legally exported, the overall momentum has not resulted in significant sales figures.

At this time, Jen-Hsun Huang added that Nvidia has completely set its sales outlook in China to “zero” in all financial forecasts and performance estimates, which he believes is the most important message. He reiterated that all of the company's performance guidance and forecasts are planned on the premise of “China's sales outlook being zero.”

Call on the U.S. government to lift the ban, NVIDIA still hopes to return to the Chinese market

Even with a sales outlook of zero, Jen-Hsun Huang candidly pointed out that the Chinese market remains very important for NVIDIA, crucial for the United States as well, not to mention for China itself. He estimates that this year, the market size related to AI and data centers in China may fall in the range of 50 billion dollars, making it a highly influential market globally.

He stated that if there is an opportunity to re-enter the Chinese market in the future, it would not only benefit the American industry, but China would also be able to access the high-quality technology provided by NVIDIA. Moreover, as Chinese software companies and open-source AI models continue to go global, supported by advanced hardware, these technologies will be more beneficial to the entire global ecosystem.

However, before both the US and China have a new clear direction, Jen-Hsun Huang stated that all financial forecasts must maintain the baseline of “zero sales outlook in the Chinese market.” NVIDIA will continue to communicate with the US government and the Chinese government, but until the officials provide new guidance, the company can only maintain its current estimation approach.

The United States allows Blackwell to export to the Middle East, but not to transfer to China.

During the interview process, the U.S. Department of Commerce released a latest statement allowing Nvidia to export up to 35,000 Blackwell chips to Humain in Saudi Arabia and G42 in the UAE. However, while easing restrictions, the U.S. also demanded strict controls to prevent the chips from being transferred to China.

The host therefore asked Jen-Hsun Huang what specific demands the U.S. government had for NVIDIA. He responded that the regulations to prevent chip transfers have actually existed for many years, and there has often been speculation about relevant risks from the outside. However, NVIDIA has conducted multiple inspections and verifications of global data centers in the past, and to date, no chips have been found to have been transferred to unauthorized regions. He emphasized that NVIDIA will continue to adhere to all regulations in a very strict manner.

As for how to prevent leakage, he said there are many methods, including allowing American cloud service providers to manage it, or having NVIDIA and customers jointly design technologies and processes to ensure that the chips are not transferred. Whether at the technical level or the management level, NVIDIA will maintain high standards of control.

This article discusses the U.S. easing the export restrictions on NVIDIA's Blackwell to the Middle East. Jen-Hsun Huang hopes for future relaxation of restrictions on China. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.