As Washington tightens its chokehold on advanced semiconductor exports to China, Nvidia says Huawei is ready to fill the vacuum left by American tech giants.

“Huawei has got China covered,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC on Thursday, warning that continued U.S. restrictions could unintentionally cement China’s alternative AI ecosystem — one where American influence would be absent.

The statement came just days after Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei acknowledged that the company’s chip technology still lags behind the United States by a generation, even as Beijing continues to portray Huawei as the nation’s top AI chip contender. Speaking to People’s Daily, Ren said: “The United States has exaggerated Huawei’s achievements. Huawei is not that great. We have to work hard to reach their evaluation.”

Despite that admittance, Huawei’s presence in China’s AI landscape is growing, especially as it develops homegrown alternatives to Nvidia’s high-end GPUs, which have been cut off under U.S. export restrictions. Huang, speaking on the sidelines of the Viva Technology conference in Paris, said the real threat is not Huawei’s current capability — but what the future holds if American firms are shut out of the world’s second-largest economy.

Huang did not mince words when asked about the implications of the U.S. barring chip exports to Chinese firms.

“If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered — and Huawei has got everybody else covered,” Huang told CNBC. “Our technology is a generation ahead of theirs,” he said but warned that losing access to the Chinese AI developer base would come at a cost the U.S. may not fully comprehend yet.

The Nvidia chief stressed the importance of global developers continuing to build on the U.S. tech stack rather than pivoting to Chinese-built hardware and software alternatives.

“If we want the American technology stack to win around the world, then giving up 50% of the world’s AI researchers is not sensible,” he said. “So long as all the AI developers are in China, I think the China stack is going to win. We have to be mindful of near-term actions that have long-term, unintended consequences.”

U.S.-China Technology Rift Deepens

The growing rift between the U.S. and China in technology is now most visible in the AI and semiconductor sectors. Since 2022, the U.S. has imposed multiple waves of export controls restricting the sale of high-performance chips to Chinese companies. These restrictions have been expanded under President Donald Trump’s return to office.

In addition to limiting chip exports, the White House recently announced plans to “aggressively revoke visas” of Chinese students, especially those in strategic fields like AI and quantum computing. Last month, the U.S. Commerce Department also issued a warning to American firms and institutions against using chips from Chinese firms, singling out Huawei once again.

Beijing has responded by doubling down on its strategy of technological self-reliance. Firms like Huawei, SMIC, and others are receiving heavy state support to accelerate domestic innovation in AI chips and computing hardware. Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor, developed entirely in-house, is now at the center of its push to replace Nvidia in China.

Huang revealed that he continues to engage with the Trump administration to explain the complexities of Nvidia’s technology and the broader AI industry.

“Trump knows what he’s doing. He has a game plan. I trust him, and we’ll support him the best we can,” Huang said, adding that he believes U.S. decisions should factor in the strategic implications for global AI leadership.

However, the challenge is steep. Nvidia dominates the AI chip market globally but has seen its China business shrink significantly under export restrictions. The company has attempted to develop custom chips like the H20, L20, and L2 for China that comply with U.S. export rules, but their performance pales compared to the top-tier A100 and H100 chips.

Europe Emerges as a Parallel Frontier

While China remains a critical concern, Huang also sees a major opportunity in Europe. During his visit to the region this week, he praised the U.K. for its robust AI ecosystem and committed to expanding Nvidia’s presence there.

“Europe is a market all by itself — independent of China and anything else,” he said, singling out France as a country with the potential to “export AI” just as it exports energy.

He added: “Intelligence is the foundational layer of every industry. So it stands to reason that long-term intelligence will be the size of the GDP of each region. And therefore, in total, the EU is going to be a very large market for AI.”

The European Union is ramping up investments in AI research and infrastructure, keen on reducing its dependency on American and Chinese technologies. Member states are launching public-private initiatives to build sovereign cloud infrastructure and expand semiconductor manufacturing capacity.

What’s at Stake?

The global AI arms race is no longer just about computing power — it’s about geopolitical influence. With half of the world’s AI researchers based in China and growing incentives to switch to domestic hardware, Huawei is emerging as the cornerstone of an alternative AI tech stack.

Though Ren Zhengfei downplays Huawei’s capabilities, Jensen Huang’s warning makes it clear that if American firms abandon the Chinese market entirely, Huawei won’t just “have China covered” — it may soon have the rest of the world.

The World Bank has maintained its earlier projection that Nigeria’s economy will grow by 3.6 percent in 2025, even as it trimmed its global forecast due to mounting trade tensions and rising uncertainty in international markets.

In its Global Economic Prospects report released Tuesday, the Bank revised its 2025 global growth outlook downward to 2.3 percent, a 0.4 percentage point cut from its January estimate. It cited “higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty” as critical drags on global trade, investment, and supply chains.

Despite this more pessimistic global tone, the Bank said Nigeria’s economic momentum is expected to hold steady, bolstered by ongoing reforms and rising investment in service sectors such as financial services and ICT. It reaffirmed that domestic growth would accelerate from an estimated 3.4 percent in 2024 to 3.6 percent in 2025, and average 3.8 percent from 2026 through 2027.

“Domestic reforms have helped spur investment, supporting growth in the services sector, especially in financial services and information and communication technology,” the Bank said. “Services activity will continue to be the main driver of growth, while the industrial sector will remain constrained by subdued crude oil production.”

The Bank’s outlook also suggests gradual inflation easing, as monetary tightening implemented in 2024 — in response to the naira’s rapid depreciation — begins to take effect. Inflation has remained elevated in Nigeria, driven by exchange rate volatility, fuel subsidy removal, and rising food costs. However, tighter policy and structural reforms are expected to moderate price growth in the coming year.

Limited Impact of Global Trade Tensions

While the World Bank expects escalating trade tensions between major powers like the United States and China to dampen global output, it downplayed the immediate impact on Nigeria and much of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The report noted that the region’s limited integration into global manufacturing supply chains offers some insulation from direct trade fragmentation.

“The direct impact on SSA growth of further escalation in global trade tensions may be contained owing to the limited direct exposure to export markets in China and the United States, apart from commodity demand,” the report said.

That said, Nigeria remains vulnerable to commodity price fluctuations, particularly a downturn in crude oil or mineral exports linked to any broader slowdown in China — one of Africa’s largest commodity trading partners. A steeper-than-expected slowdown in China would shrink demand for minerals and metals, with ripple effects across SSA economies dependent on extractive exports.

Growth Too Weak to Cut Poverty

While Nigeria’s macro outlook appears stable, the Bank warned that the region’s per capita income growth — including Nigeria’s — remains weak. It forecasts average per capita gains of just 1.6 percent between 2025 and 2027, far too low to make meaningful progress in lifting people out of poverty.

“This pace would mean that, in terms of living standards, the region would fall even further behind other emerging markets and developing economies, excluding China and India,” the Bank noted. “These per capita income gains will remain inadequate for significantly reducing extreme poverty in the region.”

Sub-Saharan Africa still hosts the majority of the world’s poorest people, and the Bank emphasized that sustained improvement in welfare would require faster income growth, greater investment in social infrastructure, and more inclusive economic planning.

Mounting Risks from Insecurity and Climate Shocks

The report also flagged rising insecurity, climate shocks, and limited fiscal space as key threats to long-term growth. It noted that persistent violence across parts of the region, including Nigeria, continues to weigh heavily on investment, agricultural productivity, and household welfare.

Meanwhile, the economic toll from worsening weather events — floods, droughts, and erratic rainfall — is rising sharply.

“The share of the population affected by adverse weather events, which destroy crops and dampen economic activity, has increased sharply in recent years,” the Bank warned.

Even though public debt levels are projected to ease moderately, high debt servicing costs remain a concern. Nigeria and many of its regional peers are struggling with limited fiscal space for development-related spending, particularly after a recent rise in sovereign spreads increased borrowing costs.

Foreign aid inflows are also shrinking, putting more pressure on national budgets. “Further declines in official development assistance inflows risk worsening humanitarian and fiscal challenges,” the report said.

Conversely, the World Bank’s decision to maintain Nigeria’s growth projection at 3.6 percent signals cautious optimism. However, the Bank’s warning that current growth remains inadequate to reduce poverty underlines economists’ warning that macro stability alone will not solve Nigeria’s deeper development challenges.