Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says China should not have Blackwell or Rubin AI GPUs — firmly states US should have 'the first, the most, and the best' when it comes to AI hardware

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has firmly stated that China should not have access to its "latest and greatest" AI GPU technology, notably its Blackwell and Rubin lines, stating that the United States should have a lead in AI technology. As per Nikkei Asia, Huang says Nvidia are "huge supporters of the United States having the first, the most, and the best."

The head of Nvidia was speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, which was attended by bankers, businessmen, and investors. He stated that the global reach of American AI accelerators helps increase tax income, which strengthens the economy, which in turn supports national security. At the same time, Huang emphasized that China should not receive the 'latest and greatest' AI accelerators, such as the current-generation Blackwell or next-generation Rubin. This is a way for the U.S. to maintain its lead in the frontier AI models.

Back in November, the U.S. government approved sales of Nvidia's H200 processors to approved customers in China, provided that they would pay 25% cut to the U.S. government. The company confirmed in February that it had received orders from numerous customers in the People's Republic. However, in its most recent conference call, Nvidia said that it had not shipped any H200 processors to Chinese customers recently. By contrast, AMD, which also got permission to sell its Instinct MI308X, sold $390 million worth of AI GPUs to its clients in China.

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More recently, Huang admitted that Nvidia's AI accelerator market share in China had dropped to zero percent, suggesting that the company did not ship any H200 GPUs to the PRC in the first calendar quarter of 2026. There might be a reason why Nvidia is avoiding shipping Hopper GPUs to China. Both Hopper and Blackwell processors are made at the same fabs and N4/N5-capable production lines by TSMC, and since capacity allocation is limited, Nvidia is more interested in selling more advanced and expensive Blackwell processors to its customers in the U.S. and avoiding paying the U.S. government a 25% cut rather than selling Hopper GPUs to clients in China.

Once Nvidia ramps up production of its next-generation Rubin GPUs using TSMC's N3 process technology, the Taiwan-based foundry will be able to allocate more N4/N5 capacity to Hopper GPUs. It's possible to speculate that Nvidia will likely resume shipments of Hopper accelerators to China.

In any case, earlier this year, Jensen Huang said that Nvidia's clients in China would get Blackwell GPUs in time, but did not elaborate, which probably means that when Rubin GPUs are available widely, some cut-down versions of Blackwell may be supplied to customers in the PRC.

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