Nvidia CEO Sees "No Evidence" Of AI Chip Diversion To China As Trump Rolls Back Restrictions

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has had a very busy week. He first joined President Trump's U.S. delegation to the Middle East, where he secured AI chip deals with Saudi Arabia, and is now in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, on Saturday morning.

Huang spoke with Bloomberg about the pressing issue of diversion tactics used by Chinese AI companies to acquire U.S. chips for their models. He stated there is no evidence that Nvidia's most advanced chips are being smuggled into China through dark supply chains to circumvent U.S. trade restrictions.

"There's no evidence of any AI chip diversion. These are massive systems. The Grace Blackwell system is nearly two tons, and so you're not going to be putting that in your pocket or your backpack anytime soon," Huang said. 

He added: "The important thing is that the countries and the companies that we sell to recognize that diversion is not allowed and everybody would like to continue to buy Nvidia technology. And so they monitor themselves very carefully."

Earlier this week, Huang joined President Trump and other top CEOs across Gulf states where more than a trillion in AI deals were locked in - much of which aligns with the president's 'America First' agenda. 

Nvidia secured a deal to supply 18,000 of its cutting-edge Blackwell chips to Humain, an AI startup just launched by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

President Trump's scrapping of the Biden-Harris era "AI Diffusion Rule," which had been very unpopular with Silicon Valley, stifled U.S. innovation, saddled companies with regulation burdens, and undermined diplomatic relations with many countries, including ones in the Middle East.

"With the AI Diffusion Rule revoked, America will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the next industrial revolution and create high-paying U.S. jobs, build new U.S.-supplied infrastructure, and alleviate the trade deficit," a Nvidia spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal last week. 

Adding more color to Trump's new strategy, Jeffrey Kessler, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, said, "The Trump administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy for American AI technology with trusted foreign countries around the world while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries."

However, Shell companies and foreign adversaries have allegedly obtained Nvidia chips through dark supply chain channels, detailed in these reports:

• Trade Data Reveals Indian Biotech Firm Supplying US AI Chips To Russia

• Did DeepSeek Use Shell Companies In Singapore To Procure Nvidia Blacklisted Chips?

• Singapore Probes Nvidia AI Chip Shipments By Middlemen To Malaysia Amid DeepSeek Scrutiny

Huang concluded in the interview: "Limiting American technology around the world is precisely wrong," adding, "It should be maximizing American technology around the world."

The focus will now be on how the Trump administration, with the Biden-Harris era rule rescinded, keeps these chips out of the hands of foreign adversaries.