NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that China has advantages over the United States in building AI infrastructure, mainly in construction and energy. Huang Renxun warned that although the United States temporarily maintains an advantage in AI chips, China can build large-scale projects at an alarming rate.
"If you want to build a data center in the United States, it might take about three years from breaking ground to building an AI supercomputer," Huang said in a conversation with John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in late November. "In China, they can build a hospital in a weekend."
On the energy capabilities that support the AI boom, Huang said: "As a country, China has twice the energy of us, and our economy is larger than theirs. But that makes no sense to me."
He added that China's energy production capacity continues to "skyrocket," while U.S. energy production capacity has remained relatively flat.
Despite this, Huang Renxun insists that Nvidia is ahead of China in AI chip technology. But he warned against complacency in this regard, adding, "Anyone who thinks China can't manufacture is missing a great idea."