Nvidia will stop including China in its forecasts amid US chip export controls, CEO says

Originally Published: 12 JUN 25 14:21 ET

By Anna Stewart and Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

Paris (CNN) — Chipmaker Nvidia will exclude the Chinese market from its revenue and profit forecasts following the imposition of tough US restrictions on chip sales to China, its CEO said Thursday.

Asked whether the US will lift export controls after trade talks with China in London this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNN’s Anna Stewart in Paris: “I’m not counting on it but, if it happens, then it will be a great bonus. I’ve told all of our investors and shareholders that, going forward, our forecasts will not include the China market.”

In recent years, Washington has stepped up efforts to restrict China’s access to American chip-related technologies, aiming to prevent Beijing from using US innovations to bolster its military and artificial intelligence capabilities.

Huang’s comments underscore the impact of Washington’s chip curbs on Nvidia, a company once best known for its video game graphics processors, that has profited tremendously from growing demand for AI chips and infrastructure. The company blew past Wall Street’s revenue expectations in its first quarter of 2025, posting a 69% increase from the same period last year.

But Nvidia missed out on an additional $2.5 billion in revenue because export restrictions prevented it from shipping its H20 AI chips to China. The company developed that chip specifically to accommodate US export controls but was told in April that it would need a special license to do so. Nvidia took a smaller hit than expected from the excess inventory, however: a $4.5 billion charge compared to the $5.5 billion it had expected.

Kevin Hassett, director of the US National Economic Council, told CNBC Monday that the Trump administration might be open to loosening restrictions on exports of some microchips that China views as critical to its manufacturing sector. But the United States will maintain curbs on “very, very high-end Nvidia” chips that are capable of powering AI systems, he added.

On Thursday, Nvidia’s Huang again criticized US chip export controls.

“The goals of the export controls are not being achieved,” he told CNN. “Whatever those goals are that were being discussed initially, (they) are apparently not working. And so I think, with all export controls, the goals have to be well-articulated and tested over time.”

Last month, Huang said at a news conference in Taiwan that the US curbs on chip exports were a “failure” and warned that the restrictions were doing more damage to American business than to China.

Nvidia’s position as a critical supplier of AI chips has put it in the middle of the tech race between the US and China, which escalated earlier this year with the arrival of Chinese tech startup DeepSeek’s supposedly cheap yet sophisticated AI model. The Trump administration has been eager to position the US as a leader in AI, with Vice President JD Vance saying that “excessive regulation of the AI sector” could “kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off” during remarks at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris earlier this year.

Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said easing export controls could be necessary to prevent China from gaining an edge in AI.

“With the AI Revolution hitting its next gear of growth it is important for China tech players they get access to Nvidia chips with the current H20 ban essentially handing a good portion of Nvidia’s business directly to Huawei on a silver platter,” he wrote in a June 11 industry note.

In the meantime, Nvidia continues to expand – aiming to cement its place as a major AI player globally. Huang announced on Thursday that his company will build the world’s first cloud computing platform for industrial artificial intelligence applications in Europe. It also said its Blackwell architecture will power new AI infrastructure projects in Europe.