Jensen Huang: "US Semiconductor Supply Chain Independence from China Will Take at Least 10 Years"

"AI Surpassing Human Intelligence to Emerge Within 5 Years"

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA.
Photo by AFP Yonhap News

Jensen Huang, CEO of the American semiconductor company Nvidia, predicted that the Biden administration's semiconductor policy aimed at decoupling (separating supply chains) from China will be difficult to achieve for at least 10 years.

At the New York Times DealBook Summit held on the 29th (local time), he stated, "(The independence of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain) is an absolutely necessary effort for national security," but added, "However, complete independence from the Chinese supply chain is not realistically achievable for 10 to 20 years."

When asked whether Nvidia should continue doing business with China, he said, "We are a company built for business, so we try to work with everyone possible," adding, "However, national security issues and national competitiveness are important."

After announcing its third-quarter earnings, Nvidia revealed in a conference call that the Biden administration's export restrictions on China would inevitably impact fourth-quarter sales. Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an expansion of export bans to include low-end semiconductors to curb the development of China's AI industry. This is a significant strengthening compared to the export control draft released in October last year, and the industry has pointed to Nvidia as the biggest victim of these export controls.

Nvidia reported third-quarter revenue of $18.12 billion (approximately 23.4 trillion KRW), a threefold increase compared to $5.931 billion in the same period last year. This far exceeded market expectations of $16.18 billion. Earnings per share were $4.02, a 593% surge from $0.58 in the same period last year, surpassing the market estimate of $3.37.

Regarding the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), CEO Huang said, "There is no doubt that the pace of AGI development is accelerating," and predicted, "We will see the emergence of powerful AGI surpassing human intelligence within the next five years."

Regarding the recent OpenAI incident, he said, "I am glad OpenAI is stable, and I hope it stays that way," adding, "OpenAI is truly a great team." He also said, "(This incident) made me reconsider the importance of corporate governance." He added, "Nvidia has faced many hardships over its 30 years since founding. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn’t built the company properly."

When asked to rank AI companies leading the field such as Google, Microsoft (MS), and Meta, he briefly replied, "I will not rank my friends."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.