How Nvidia CEO Became a US-China Middleman and Changed Everything

The Nvidia H20 decision reveals three emerging dynamics in Washington's evolving statecraft.

- Alex Capri

Mr Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has become a very important person in the fraught dealings between Beijing and Washington.

As the two superpowers grapple with tariff negotiations and overlapping dimensions of geopolitical rivalry, Mr Huang has become an unofficial go-between.

Nvidia, which recently became the first company in history to surpass US$4 trillion (S$5.2 trillion) in market capitalization, commands more than an 80 percent share of the global market in so-called AI-chips. These chips are vital to the advancement of artificial intelligence. More broadly, Nvidia's cutting-edge chips are an essential enabler of modern-day technologies—from self-driving cars to cloud computing and scientific research.

Unsurprisingly, they are sought by state and non-state actors alike, with a ferocity unmatched in the history of commercial trade. For China, continued access to Nvidia's supply chains remains a national priority.

With this as background, Mr Huang has been jetting between America and China, straddling roles as Nvidia CEO and informal high-level intermediary to both governments. Somewhere in the blur of pursuing Nvidia's commercial interests and serving as a sounding board to both sides, he helped persuade the Trump administration to lift restrictions on the export of Nvidia's H20 chips to China.

Mr Huang's persuasive powers over the US President were likely aided by China's clamping down on exports of rare earths and other critical minerals—the essential materials for chipmaking and most other high-tech industries—to the US and its allies. China holds a virtual monopoly on such materials.