The U.S. tech industry risks being hit hard by an escalating chip battle between Washington and Beijing. This is the opinion in the interview with Financial Times that was expressed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
He said US export controls had left a group of Silicon Valley companies "with our hands tied behind their backs" and unable to sell modern chips in one of the company's biggest markets. Instead, Chinese manufacturers are starting to build their own chips to compete with NVIDIA's flagship processors for gaming, graphics, and artificial intelligence.
"If (China - ed.) cannot buy from ... the United States, they will simply make it themselves," he explained. “So America has to be careful. China is a very important market for the technology industry."
At the same time, the American entrepreneur warned about the lack of alternatives to the Chinese market.
“If we are deprived of the Chinese market, we don’t have the contingency to make up for it. There is no other China, only one China,” emphasized Jensen Huang.
In his opinion, blocking the access of the American technology industry to China “cut the Chips Act at the knee”. It's a $52 billion funding package from the Biden administration aimed at encouraging the construction of more semiconductor manufacturing plants in the United States.
“If the US tech industry needed a third less capacity [due to the loss of the Chinese market -ed.], nobody needs American fabs, we will swim in fabs,” added the CEO of NVIDIA. “If they’re not considering the rules, they’re going to hurt the tech industry.”
Recently, the Chinese authorities announced a ban on the supply of products from an American manufacturer Micron memory chips for critical infrastructure facilities. The move is seen as the first significant retaliation against Washington's export controls.