Co-founder of Nvidia Corp. Jensen Huang went on his first trip to China in four years.

The business tour of the head of the mentioned company, which is currently the largest player in the global chip manufacturing industry, takes place at a time when there is no definitive understanding of Beijing’s ability to circumvent Washington’s restrictions that have deprived Chinese firms of access to advanced microcircuits.

The media, citing sources, report that Jensen Huang visited Nvidia offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing. Over the weekend, photos appeared on Chinese virtual platforms showing the head of the largest chip manufacturer donning colorful traditional garb and dancing with staff. The insider referred to by the media noted that there is currently no information about whether Jensen Huang held meetings with other executives and officials. The informant used the right of anonymity, noting that this visit was not officially described in detail in the public sphere.

Jensen Huang’s visit to the Asian country became known after the relevant information was published by Chinese state media. Journalists’ materials are based on data posted on local social networks.

This visit is of particular importance in the context of the ongoing technology race between Beijing and Washington. Within the framework of this confrontation, artificial intelligence accelerators are something like the main tool for achieving the goal. Jensen Huang said that the tightening of restrictions by Washington aimed at stopping the supply of chips to China necessary for training machine intelligence systems may encourage firms from the Asian country to create alternative products of similar functional purpose. The head of Nvidia separately noted that the implementation of such a potential scenario could detriment American technology companies in the long term.

Jensen Huang’s vision of the future has a high probability of materialization. There are already harbingers that this scenario may become a reality. Last year, Huawei Technologies Co. presented a new smartphone with an improved Chinese-made processor.

An Nvidia representative, in an anonymous communication with the media, said that the head of the company celebrated the upcoming Lunar New Year with employees. There are no details about this.

Last year, the market value of the company headed by Jensen Huang more than tripled. This result is largely due to the company’s leading role in the development of artificial intelligence. In the first three weeks of the current year, Nvidia’s market value increased by another 20%, as investors are confident in the brand’s prospects to strengthen and maintain its status as a leader in the AI sector.

The company has created special versions of its products designed for the Chinese market. In terms of characteristics, these developments comply with the export control standards set by Washington.

In one of the Chinese social media platforms, one person who identified himself as an Nvidia employee posted an image of Jensen Huang handing over a raffled GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card. After that, the head of the company went to Taiwan, according to media reports.

As we have reported earlier, Nvidia Invests in More Than 35 AI Companies in 2023.