April 17,2025, I didn't know when I came to Beijing that Jensen Huang of NVIDIA also came to Beijing in the afternoon. At the most critical juncture of the tariff war, Mr. Huang's sudden visit to Beijing is quite remarkable. What's more surprising is that he wore a suit and tie instead of his signature black leather jacket. What does this imply?
Media reports suggest that Jensen came to Beijing to meet with Ren Hongbin, Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, expressing his hope to "continue cooperation" with the mainland China. Besides the Council for the Promotion of International Trade, media reports also indicate that he met with a Vice Premier of the State Council of China and Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek. This is Jensen Huang's second visit to Beijing in three months. This trip comes at a time when the Trump administration in the United States unexpectedly imposed control measures on NVIDIA's H20 chip. Without a license, the H20 chip cannot be sold to the mainland China. Currently, the H20 is the only AI chip that NVIDIA can legally sell to the mainland China. It was originally expected that NVIDIA could still deliver products to Chinese companies before the end of this year, but the Trump administration's move has instantly disrupted the supply plan, and NVIDIA may suffer losses of up to $5.5 billion. The Chinese mainland market accounted for 13% of NVIDIA's total revenue in the last fiscal year. Additionally, many products that NVIDIA sells to Singapore, its second-largest market, may eventually end up in the Chinese mainland.
It is said that during his meeting with Ren Hongbin, Jensen Huang stated that the US government's measures to strengthen chip export controls have had a significant impact on NVIDIA's business. China is a very important market for NVIDIA, and they have been deeply rooted in it for 30 years. They will continue to optimize their operations to meet the regulatory requirements of the authorities and "unswervingly" serve the mainland China market. He also said that artificial intelligence is profoundly changing the development landscape of numerous industries, and we are currently only at the beginning. Many industries, such as healthcare, financial services, climate technology, and manufacturing, will embrace the disruptive changes brought about by AI.
On one hand, there is the US government's sales ban, and on the other hand, Jensen Huang came to Beijing in person to express his intention to continue cooperation. His current situation must not be easy. Since the beginning of this year, NVIDIA's stock price has dropped by 22%. Even with all the high-profile announcements at the GTC conference and the support from the entire industry ecosystem, it has not been able to save NVIDIA's stock price.
For NVIDIA, Jensen Huang is undoubtedly their soul. If we want to understand NVIDIA and the current AI industry, we actually need to make an effort to understand who Jensen Huang really is. First of all, from the perspective of an industry observer, Jensen must be the person who is best at marketing after Cisco's CEO John Chambers. Just look at the various NVIDIA peripheral products at the GTC conference, and you will know how good he is at doing business. The last time Mr. Huang went to Taiwan, I happened to be in Thailand. I watched his people-friendly performance in Taiwan through Taiwanese TV stations throughout the whole process. He single-handedly almost revitalized the entire Taiwanese IT industry, especially during the Taipei COMPUTEX in May. He has become an idol adored by the public and a pride of Taiwan. Secondly, from the perspective of my classmate who works at NVIDIA, Jensen Huang has extraordinary leadership. This is first reflected in his ability to promptly see the connection between image processing technology and the AI industry and clearly understand the development direction of his company. Secondly, when he overruled the majority's opinions and spent a large amount of money to acquire Mellanox, it was incomprehensible to most NVIDIA employees at that time. That's why my classmate told me that when I got back, I must watch Jensen's speech at the GTC carefully. It's not just about watching his performance as a genius but also about grasping the depth of his thoughts.
Jensen visited the show floor twice during the GTC. His speech on March 18 even attracted tens of thousands of people, filling up the San Jose stadium. You can say that to some extent he was putting on a show, but you definitely cannot deny that he is a genius CEO. He is extremely flexible and also very maverick. His visit to Beijing during this extraordinary period is a clear proof of this.
