Nvidia CEO: ‘total independence of supply chain’ from China could take a decade

U.S. chipmakers will continue to rely on China at least to some extent for a very long time, says Jensen Huang. He’s the Chief Executive of Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).

Nvidia CEO says national security matters

On Wednesday, Huang said that it’s worth committing to detach from China for chip supply as “national security” and “national competitiveness” matters.

But “total independence of supply chain” could still take another “decade or two”, he told CNBC at the New York Times’ DealBook Conference today.

His remarks arrive shortly after Nvidia reported another blockbuster quarter but said sales will be weighed in the coming months now that the United States has further tightened its restrictions on chip export to China as Invezz reported here.

Shares of Nvidia Corp are currently up close to 250% for the year.

Nvidia continues to do business with China

Nvidia continues to be in business with China and will try to maintain that relation while keeping in line with the U.S. restrictions, as per Jensen Huang.

The Chief Executive did, however, confirm that the company’s “leading edge” technology is not available to the largest Asian economy – and while China may “inspire” its domestic chip manufacturers eventually into conjuring that tech – Nvidia will still be some ten-year ahead of them, he added.

Earlier this week, Nvidia Corp delayed the H20 – an AI chip it specifically designed for China citing issues with “integrating the chip”.

Also today, Jensen Huang said that it will take about five years for artificial intelligence to be “fairly competitive” with humans. Wall Street currently has a consensus “buy” rating on $NVDA.