Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang recently declared to the Financial Times that: “China is going to win the AI race.” He later softened his stance, saying the US’s rival was merely “nanoseconds behind,” and that it’s vital America comes out on top “by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide.”
Huang’s initial assessment is simplistic, and the motives for his negativity about the US are transparent. He has spent the past year arguing that America benefits from his company selling chips to the Chinese market despite Washington’s encroaching export controls. But he is right to worry that the battle for developers may already be slipping away.