The technological pulse between the United States and China has jumped from the factories to the private life of the man who turned Nvidia into the great supplier of artificial intelligence. Now, Jensen Huang's resignation threatens to close one of the last doors that Beijing tried to keep open to access the most advanced American processors.
Huang defended selling to China so as not to push it to manufacture its own alternatives. His closeness to President Donald Trump favored some flexibility. But his relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman suspected by US intelligence of working for Chinese spies, has given ammunition to those demanding a tougher siege.
Although the Asian giant warns that it has a powerful tool to respond to a new tightening of US restrictions: the dominance of rare earths.
If Washington takes advantage of the Nvidia scandal to further limit the sale of AI chips, Chinese authorities could respond by restricting its exports of rare earths. Many Chinese economic analysts remember these days that this entire dispute reflects the technological dependence between the two superpowers: the US controls a good part of the most advanced processors that China needs, while Beijing controls the supply of essential materials for numerous US industries.
On the political front, Chinese government spokespersons demand that Washington stop "fabricating stories about Chinese spies" to justify its "technological blockade," in reference to the scandal surrounding the mistress of the founder of Nvidia. This broke out just before a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Shenzhen. The choice of setting is especially symbolic: a summit held in the technological capital of China, one of the main drivers of Beijing's offensive to break its dependence on American technology.
The chip war between the world's two largest economies began during Trump's first term. In 2019, Washington placed the Chinese giant Huawei on its trade blacklist and, in 2020, expanded restrictions on foreign manufacturers using American technology to produce chips destined for the Chinese giant.
The Joe Biden Administration expanded that initial offensive, prohibiting the export of high-power processors and advanced machinery to manufacture semiconductors. In this scenario, Nvidia tried to adapt by designing less powerful versions of its chips, such as the A800 and H800, aimed specifically at the Chinese market. However, in 2023, Washington tightened controls again to also prevent the sale of these models.
Trump's return to the White House began with a new wave of restrictions that did not last long: in December 2025, Washington opened the door to the export of Nvidia's H200s, much more advanced, under an announced 25% tax. That decision marked a victory for Jensen Huang, who had been lobbying for the Chinese market for months.
Meanwhile, China was turning towards another strategy: it restricted certain purchases of foreign chips to favor its own manufacturers and reduce its technological dependence on the United States. Xi Jinping's government has been interpreting this foreign dependence as a strategic threat for years. Self-sufficiency is your priority.
Huawei is developing its own AI chips, with which it intends to compete with those from Nvidia. This year, the Chinese manufacturer Hua Hong is also advancing the development of seven-nanometer chips, a technology that allows millions of tiny electronic components to be concentrated in a very small space and manufacture more powerful and efficient processors.
In Washington, the scandal surrounding Jensen Huang has become parliamentary ammunition. According to US media reports, Republicans and Democrats seek to include three measures in the annual Defense law. The first would expand congressional control over licenses to sell advanced chips; the second would require mechanisms to track them and combat smuggling; and the latter would pressure allies to restrict semiconductor manufacturing machinery.
In the spotlight is one of the main ways that Chinese companies have used to circumvent US restrictions: renting computing power in centers installed in Southeast Asia. This mechanism allows access to Nvidia's most advanced processors without having to physically introduce them to China.
It is precisely the business model that appears under suspicion in the Nvidia plot. According to US investigations, Alice Huang and her husband, through a complex network of companies, would have facilitated access to Nvidia processing capacity from facilities in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
