Nvidia's Jensen Huang softens his ‘China will win the AI race’ remark to FT (www.cnbc.com)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sparked headlines after telling the Financial Times that “China is going to win the AI race,” then issuing a softer public clarification hours later on X, saying China is “nanoseconds behind America” and stressing that “it’s vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide.” The exchange highlighted Huang’s longstanding thesis that hardware access and developer ecosystems — not just algorithms — decide global AI leadership. He argued China’s lower energy costs and pro‑industry subsidies, plus looser regulation, give it a competitive edge over a more cautious West. For the AI/ML community this is a reminder that geopolitics, chips and infrastructure matter as much as models. Huang has lobbied against strict export controls, framing Nvidia’s GPUs as strategic leverage: recent deals with Washington eased some curbs but imposed measures (reported revenue-sharing of ~15% on certain China sales) and access remains constrained while Beijing pushes domestic chip alternatives. Technically, the story underscores how energy pricing, supply chains, and developer lock‑in around accelerator hardware influence training scale, deployment costs, and who can economically run large models — all crucial inputs to who leads future AI innovation.