Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang returns to China for a media briefing amid rising tensions over U.S. export restrictions on high-tech chips. Huang's visit is under scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers concerned about military use by China.

A Bloomberg analysis of documents and company filings show how China is building giant data centers in the desert to fuel its AI ambitions — and looking to buy 115,000 banned Nvidia chips to power them.

Huang’s trip also comes at the same time as the International Supply Chain Expo, a large-scale event supported by the Chinese government, which has previously been graced with the presence of leading global tech figures, such as Apple’s Tim Cook. Huang seeks to speak with government officials at the highest level, including the commerce minister.

Nvidia plans to release a chip that is retrofitted from an existing Blackwell processor that was modified to meet chip export rules.

China plans to build at least 39 data centers in the desert regions of Xinjiang and Qinghai, outfitted with over 115,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs. These advanced chips have been under a US export ban since 2022,

The Chinese firm has reached out to potential clients in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Thailand about buying its Ascend 910B processors.

China plans to build 39 AI data centers using over 115,000 restricted Nvidia GPUs, with 70% going to a massive site in Xinjiang, potentially defying U.S. export bans and raising concerns over sourcing.

Nvidia shares were down 0.8% at $162.86 in premarket trading, in line with a slump in wider market futures. The stock rose 0.8% on Thursday and the company became the first to close above $4 trillion, cementing its position as the world’s most valuable by market capitalization.