According to the Financial Times, NVIDIA is planning to set up a research and development center in Shanghai. The move is aimed at helping the company stay competitive in China especially as it faces stricter U.S. export rules.
CEO Jensen Huang discussed the plan with Shanghai’s mayor Gong Zheng when they met in the city last month, the FT report said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. The company is leasing a new office space in Shanghai to accommodate existing employees.
According to the Financial Times, the planned R&D center will focus on understanding what Chinese customers need and making sure products meet U.S. export rules. However, the main design and manufacturing work will still be done outside China.
In 2024, about 14% of Nvidia’s sales came from China. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, sees China as a future market worth $50 billion. He also visited the country in April.
Nvidia sold a special chip called the H20 in China. This chip had lower performance to follow U.S. export rules set during the Biden administration.
However, in April, the Trump administration introduced even stricter rules on tech exports to China. These new rules now stop Nvidia from sending the current version of the H20 chip to China.
Earlier reports said Nvidia considered reducing the H20 chip’s performance even more to meet U.S. export rules.
The H20 chip is still very popular in China and is used by big AI companies like Bytedance, DeepSeek, Tencent, and Baidu.
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