ISTANBUL 

The CEO of US tech giant Nvidia warned that the US is falling behind on AI, with China set “to win the AI race,” The Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Jensen Huang said the West, including the US and Britain, is being held back by “cynicism” and called for “more optimism” during the Financial Times’ Future of AI Summit.

He criticized new US state-level AI rules that could create “50 new regulations,” contrasting them with Chinese energy subsidies that make it cheaper for local companies to operate domestic alternatives to Nvidia’s AI chips, saying: “Power is free.”

Huang’s remarks come as the Trump administration maintains its ban on sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China, despite a recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The CEO previously warned that the latest US AI models barely outpace Chinese rivals and urged the government to open the market to Nvidia’s chips to keep the world dependent on American technology.

After meeting with Xi last month, Trump said that he would not allow China access to Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell chips, telling CBS News: “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States.”

"As for the most advanced chips, the Blackwell chip, that's not something we're interested in selling to China at this time," White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt reiterated Tuesday.