NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Photo: VCG

Nvidia on Friday responded to a Global Times inquiry over alleged "leaked" content from a private chat on a social media platform on Friday, in which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang allegedly backed up his view that China is winning the artificial intelligence (AI) race with the US with facts and numbers. A Chinese analyst said the constant messages from the Nvidia chief's repeated messages underline his unease over potentially losing the vital Chinese market with the US government restrictions in place.

In the alleged "leaked" content, circulating on the Chinese social media platform RedNote, which cannot be verified, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was in a private meeting with a number of business partners including executives from original equipment manufacturers from the island of Taiwan. In the supposedly off-record meeting, Huang commented on the outcome of the AI race between China and the US and criticized the US government's restrictive policies - which Huang reportedly said have the opposite effect of "accelerating China."

When the Global Times reached the company for comment, a representative from the PR department referred to a post made by the company on Thursday, which quotes Huang as saying "As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in AI. It's vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide."

The company declined to comment on other alleged content in the private talks.

The company's statement marked the latest chapter of Huang's comments on the AI race between China and the US, as he stated in an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday that China "is going to win the AI race," which the newspaper described as his "starkest comments yet."

Huang warned that China will beat the US in the AI race during an exclusive interview with the Financial Times on the sidelines of its Future of AI Summit on Wednesday. The Nvidia chief also contrasted the US' regulatory quagmire with China's enabling environment. 

Chinese experts say the remarks reflect the American tech giant's unease over potentially losing the vital Chinese market amid US government restrictions.

Huang's prediction comes at a time when intensified US tech restrictions against China have not only accelerated China's drive for technological self-reliance and spurred breakthroughs in areas such as semiconductors, but have also caused Nvidia to lose access to the vast Chinese market.

Liu Dingding, a veteran tech industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday that China is on the way to becoming a major AI market in the world, and its vital importance cannot be overlooked by any company in the AI field.

"This includes the vast user base that generates countless application scenarios for AI and the scale of AI developers which are key to companies such as Nvidia striving to build up an ecosystem," Liu said. "Nvidia's sense of uneasiness is further heightened as domestic Chinese companies have made great strides in AI, with some companies capable of churning out chips that offer comparable performance at cheaper prices than Nvidia's."

Earlier October, Huang warned during his talk with Sequoia Capital partner Konstantine Buhler in New York, that Nvidia's position in China has dropped from 95 percent of the advanced chip market to zero, as the semiconductor giant is not allowed to sell its advanced products to Chinese mainland companies under US export restrictions.

Amid US chip restrictions, China has repeatedly urged stable supply chains. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on October 29 that "China has made clear on multiple occasions its principled position on US chip exports to China. We hope the US can take concrete actions to keep global industrial and supply chains stable," when asked to comment on Huang's remarks indicating his desire for US AI chips to be sold in China.