China banned Nvidia’s gaming chip while CEO Jensen Huang was visiting Beijing with Trump
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday that he believed China’s market would become accessible to US chip suppliers. Photograph: (AFP)
China is supporting its domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon as they catch up with their US rivals. The Nvidia chip, known as the RTX 5090D V2, was introduced last August to comply with US export controls. It was added to a list of banned goods at China’s customs checkpoints.
In a curious move, China banned an Nvidia gaming chip while the company’s chief executive Jensen Huang was visiting the country as part of US President Donald Trump’s delegation last week, says a Financial Times report. The move, which is being viewed as an odd one due to its timing, highlights the battle among superpowers to dominate AI.
The chip was added to a list of banned goods at China’s customs checkpoints last Friday, says Financial Times, citing two people privy to the development.
The move showcases Beijing’s determination to keep out Nvidia’s chips, especially the degraded versions made to comply with US export controls.
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The Chinese government is supporting domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon as they catch up with their US rivals. The Nvidia chip, known as the RTX 5090D V2, was introduced last August to comply with US export controls. It was aimed at Chinese gamers and 3D animators, but it has also been bought by AI developers, cut off from the most sophisticated Nvidia products.
Nvidia’s Huang said on Monday that he believed China’s market would become accessible to US chip suppliers. “My sense is that over time, the market will open,” he told Bloomberg TV.
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Sales of other Nvidia chips including the H200 and the H20, another China-specific product that Nvidia sold earlier in the market, have been blocked by Beijing even though the Trump administration has approved sales to Chinese tech groups such as Alibaba and Tencent. Huang joined Trump at the last minute to be part of a US delegation to Beijing, where he was seen eating local delicacies and touring the Chinese capital.
Huawei is set to capture the largest share of China’s AI chip market this year, with sales jumping by at least 60 per cent amid strong demand from Chinese companies seeking domestic alternatives to Nvidia.
As per Morgan Stanley forecasts, China’s AI chip market will reach $67 billion in 2030, with 86 per cent expected to be supplied by Chinese groups. The US bank estimates the market to be worth about $21 billion this year from domestic suppliers. China’s AI chip sector was previously dominated by Nvidia, which sold products worth just over $17 billion—mostly H20 chips—in the Chinese market in the 2025 financial year.
