Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Models: 'Don't Ban Kimi K3'

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the US government should not ban or restrict Chinese AI models like Kimi K3, calling them 'excellent' and arguing that open-source models expand the AI market, driving more chip demand.

On July 22, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told Axios journalist Mike Allen that the US government should not ban or restrict Chinese AI models like Kimi K3. 'These Chinese models are excellent,' Huang said. 'We should use excellent open-source models.' Huang pushed back against the narrative that Chinese AI models threaten US AI dominance. 'The market misunderstood DeepSeek's impact the first time, and now it's misunderstanding Kimi's impact,' he said. 'This time, my first thought was that open AI models are good for the entire industry. If there are more, better AI models -- as long as they're open -- it doesn't matter where they come from,' Huang added. 'Using more open-source models will expand the AI market, drive more chip demand, more data center and compute needs.' Huang's comments come amid growing US-China tensions over AI technology. The US government has imposed export controls on advanced AI chips to China and has been considering restrictions on Chinese AI models. Huang's position aligns with his business interests -- more AI models mean more demand for NVIDIA's GPUs -- but also reflects a genuine belief in the benefits of open-source AI development.