(JW Insights) June 2 -- Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang is heading to China to meet with tech executives in the world’s biggest chip market, despite rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, reported Bloomberg on May 31.

Huang, who headlined a trade show in Taiwan this week, plans to travel to China for the first time in years in June, said the people, who asked not to be identified because his schedule is private. Companies on his itinerary include gaming leader Tencent Holdings and TikTok-owner ByteDance, one of the people said.

Huang hasn’t finalized his plans and details of his visit could change, the people added. Asked on May 25 if he would head to mainland China after wrapping up the week in Taiwan, he told reporters: “I haven’t decided yet.”

Nvidia is emerging as a critical player in the booming field of artificial intelligence, but its position in China has been complicated by geopolitics. US sanctions unveiled by the Biden administration last year prevent the semiconductor company from selling its most advanced AI chipsets to Chinese customers, including Tencent and ByteDance, said Bloomberg.

Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, which gets about a fifth of its revenue from China, quickly retooled its lineup after the ban to create new chips for the Chinese market that it says are compliant with the restrictions. Nvidia’s chipsets are considered the gold standard for training AI systems, like the large language model behind ChatGPT.

Huang, 60, is hardly alone in courting Chinese customers. He joins a growing list of corporate chieftains taking advantage of China’s post-Covid reopening to visit the world’s No. 2 economy, including Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and billionaire Elon Musk. Despite a pandemic-era downturn, China remains a key market for many of the world’s biggest companies and many economists expect growth to re-accelerate over the course of 2023.

Huang didn’t elaborate and an Nvidia representative had earlier declined to comment. Spokespeople for for Tencent and ByteDance didn’t respond to a request for comment, said Bloomberg.

Executives from Chinese customers including Tencent have played down concerns that US chip sanctions will cripple their ability to keep pace with AI development globally. Many executives argue that they can make up for the loss of performance in part by employing more chips, though that could inflate costs, said the report from Bloomberg.

(Gao J)