The United States last year tightened export controls on technology from Nvidia and other chip companies to keep it out of the hands of the Chinese military.
And anti-China sentiment seems a rare unifying theme in a politically divided US Congress, with legislation aimed at curbing Chinese-owned TikTok.
"I do have confidence that the goal of the nations is not adversarial," Jensen said when asked by AFP how friction between the countries could affect Nvidia.
"The doomsday scenario is not likely to happen. We're not counting on it, certainly things we can do are related to resilience and compliance."
For now, Nvidia needs to ensure chips intended for the China market comply with US restrictions, and to make its supply chain more diverse, Huang said.
He pointed to Nvidia's freshly unveiled Blackwell computing systems for powering artificial intelligence, noting that they contain tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of parts.
"Those parts come from all over the world, many of them are from China," Huang said.
"That is just the truth. That is also the truth for the auto industry; this is also the truth for the defense industry."
Unlike many of its rivals such as Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments, Nvidia does not manufacture its own chips, but uses subcontractors, mainly the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Given the geopolitical concerns with Taiwan and China, this could be a weak spot.
Nvidia on Monday launched its latest family of chips for powering artificial intelligence, as it seeks to consolidate its position as the major supplier to the AI frenzy.
Known as Blackwell GPUs, the AI "superchips" are four times as fast as the previous generation when training AI models, Nvidia said.
Nvidia's GPU chips and software are integral to creation of generative AI, with rivals like AMD or Intel still struggling to match the power and efficiency of the company's products.
Nvidia on Monday also announced a major expansion of its collaboration with world-leading BYD and other Chinese electric car makers, including on the development of autonomous AI-boosted vehicles.
The move deepens Nvidia's connections with the Chinese EV industry even as it is separately prohibited by the United States from exporting its most powerful AI hardware to China.
Beijing has slammed US curbs on chip exports to that country as "bullying" and "technological terrorism."
AI giant Nvidia unveils higher performing 'superchips'
San Jose, United States (AFP) Mar 18, 2024 -
Nvidia on Monday unveiled its latest family of chips for powering artificial intelligence, as it seeks to consolidate its position as the major supplier to the AI frenzy.
"We need bigger GPUs. So ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to a very, very big GPU," said CEO Jensen Huang at a developers conference in California, referring to the graphics processors that are vital in the creation of generative AI.
The event, dubbed the "AI Woodstock" by Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, has become a can't-miss date on big tech's calendar due to Nvidia's singular role in the AI revolution that has taken the world by storm since the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022.
"I hope you realize this is not a concert, this is a developers conference," Huang joked as he took the stage in a packed arena usually reserved for ice hockey games and concerts.
Nvidia's powerful GPU chips and software are an integral ingredient in the creation of generative AI, with rivals like AMD or Intel still struggling to match the power and efficiency of the company's blockbuster H100 product, launched in 2022.
Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have also developed chips with AI in mind, but for now are stuck trying to get their hands on Nvidia's coveted products in order to deliver on their own AI promises.
That lynchpin role in the AI revolution has seen Nvidia's share price rise roughly 250 percent over the last 12 months, propelling the company above Amazon when measured by market capitalization, behind only Microsoft and Apple.
- 'Insane' -
Not letting up, Nvidia told the audience of developers and tech executives it was releasing an even more powerful processor and accompanying software, on a platform called Blackwell -- named after David Blackwell, the first Black academic inducted into the National Academy of Science.
Blackwell GPUs were AI "superchips" four times as fast as the previous generation when training AI models, Nvidia said.
"The rate at which computing is advancing is insane," Huang said.
They would also deliver 25 times the energy efficiency, Nvidia said, a key claim when the creation of AI is criticized for its ravenous needs for energy and natural resources when compared to more conventional computing.
Unlike its rivals Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments, Nvidia, like AMD, does not manufacture its own chips, but uses subcontractors, mainly the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Given the geopolitical concerns with Taiwan and China, this could be a potential weak spot, and the US has banned Nvidia from sending its most powerful chips to Chinese companies.
- Gr00T -
Nvidia also announced other AI developments, including a platform for training humanoid robots.
Project Gr00t, which Nvidia said was not named after the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie character Groot, was described as the "world's first human foundation model."
Gr00t-powered robots will be designed to understand what people say and mimic people's movements, learning from experience how to interact with the world, according to Nvidia.
The models "will enable a robot to learn from a handful of human demonstrations so it can help with everyday tasks and emulate human movement just by observing us," Nvidia said.
Nvidia said it was also working with Apple to put AI capabilities into the newly released Vision Pro spatial computing gear.
The collaboration comes as Apple is under pressure to show it is not being left behind by Amazon, Google, Meta and OpenAI when it comes to artificial intelligence.
Nvidia also unveiled the Earth-2 Cloud Platform for predicting climate change, using simulation by AI supercomputers.
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