CEO Jensen Huang, who leads the artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader Nvidia, appeared in Beijing on the eve of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and praised the Chinese market and employees.
His move, which contrasts with the heads of big tech companies such as Tesla, Amazon, Meta and TikTok attending Trump’s inauguration, is interpreted as further emphasizing the importance of the Chinese market amid deepening U.S.-China conflict.
According to Chinese media outlets such as Yi Cha-yi and Feng Pai on the 20th, CEO Hwang attended the annual Spring Festival celebration of Nvidia’s Beijing branch on the evening of the 19th and spoke on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI).
CEO Hwang said, “We gathered here to celebrate the beginning of a new era called ‘AI’ with the beginning of the new year,” adding, “There was no new breakthrough (in the field of computer development) until AI emerged after the commercial computer was created 60 years ago.”
“Now AI is not an incredibly amazing technology, but a technology that permeates everyone’s daily life,” he said. “I ask a lot of questions to AI every day, and I’m making AI my mentor.”
At the same time, he showed his affection for China without adding or subtracting.
“People don’t know, but it’s been 25 years since Nvidia entered the Chinese market,” CEO Hwang said, adding, “Over the past 20 years, we have contributed together to modernize one of the world’s greatest markets and countries.”
According to him, Nvidia has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China, and the total number of employees is about 4,000.
“The turnover rate of Chinese employees is the lowest in the world, with an annual turnover rate of only 0.9 percent,” he said. “It is very low compared to the annual turnover rate of some technology companies reaching 20%.
He added, “When you join Nvidia, it means you will grow old with me, and I am very proud of this fact.”
He also said Nvidia is collaborating with about 3,000 startups in China.
Referring to “CUDA,” an AI development platform that runs only on Nvidia’s products, he jokingly mentioned, “CUDA is difficult for ordinary people to understand and only for super people to understand, but the number of developers using CUDA in China reaches 1.5 million.”
Nvidia is known to control more than 80% of the global AI chip market through Cuda.
On this day, he said, “Gowai Feng Yu Dazahao,” meaning, “Hello, everyone,” and gave his first greeting in Chinese.
The meeting reportedly included officials from Chinese universities and founders of robot-related startups in China.
After the speech, he also attended an in-house prize lottery event, and the top prize was five graphic cards signed by Jensen Huang (GeForce RTX 4060 Ti).
CEO Hwang previously attended Nvidia’s annual Spring Festival on the 15th, and then toured China and Taiwan, visiting his hometown of Taiwan and attending the closing ceremony of the Taiwanese governor on the 17th.
Nvidia reportedly accounts for 17% of sales in China as the U.S. administration tightens restrictions on AI chip exports to China.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
