Nvidia’s Huang defends China tech talent at DC conference

While the tug of war between the US and China over chips has been well covered, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang raised another group caught in the crossfire that has received less attention in Washington: Chinese tech talent. At the company’s annual developers confab, held in the US capital for the first time this week, Huang mentioned several times that half of the world’s AI researchers come from China, which used to be a key recruitment pool for Silicon Valley.

“Is it possible that the United States falls behind China? The answer is absolutely yes,” Huang said, citing the statistic as the reason why. “It is extremely important that the United States continue to be the country by which immigrants like myself want to come here to do our education, to stay and build our career and build our life.” It’s a view Huang has expressed before, but it’s one of the few areas where he differs with the White House. And it seemed like a pointed remark as he sat on stage next to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who stressed that the Trump administration’s problems are with the Chinese government, not the Chinese people.