"I'm not worried about Jensen [Huang] at all," said US President Donald Trump, commenting on the Nvidia CEO's visit to Beijing. The trip was the latest twist in a tumultuous week for the US firm, which is the world's third most valuable company and top supplier of AI computer chips. We take a closer look in this week's edition of Tech 24.
Not only did Huang speak with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng during Thursday's visit, the Financial Times reported that he also met Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, a Chinese startup that shocked the world back in January with its powerful AI model produced at a fraction of the cost of American alternatives.
On Tuesday, Nvidia revealed that the White House had gone ahead with restrictions on exports to China of its H20 processor, a chip specifically designed to avoid export controls put in place under the Biden administration. They said the new restrictions would cost them about $5.5 billion each quarter.
It was another body blow for the sector, which had breathed a sigh of relief at the end of last week, when the Trump administration made clear that semiconductors and other tech products would be exempt from punishing new tariffs on China.
All seemed relatively rosy on Monday, when Nvidia and its partners announced a $500 billion investment in AI hardware made in the USA, with plans to build supercomputers in Texas, and production of advanced chips underway in Arizona.
Huang dined at Trump's Mar-a-Lago complex two weeks ago, and reporters had said his lobbying efforts meant Trump would no longer be restricting H20 exports. But as we should have learnt by now, you can't second-guess Trump.
More bad news came on Wednesday, when US lawmakers opened an investigation into Nvidia's sales to China.
We break it all down on Tech 24 with Emma Cosgrove, a senior reporter for Business Insider, who covers Nvidia.
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