By Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Saturday that global collaboration and cooperation in technology will continue, even if the incoming U.S. administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products.
President-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed a series of restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to China citing national security concerns – a policy broadly continued under incumbent President Joe Biden.
“Open science in global collaboration, cooperation across math and science has been around for a very long time. It is the foundation of social advancement and scientific advancement,” Huang told media during a visit to Hong Kong.
Global cooperation is “going to continue. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the new administration, but whatever happens, we’ll balance simultaneously compliance with laws and policies, continue to advance our technology and support and serve customers all over the world.”
Earlier on Saturday Huang told graduates and academics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology that “the age of AI has started” in a speech after receiving an honorary doctorate degree in engineering.
The head of the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence applications received the award alongside actor Tony Leung, Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner Prof. Michael Levitt and Fields Medallist Prof. David Mumford.
“The age of AI has started. A new computing era that will impact every industry and every field of science,” said Huang.
He said Nvidia has “reinvented computing and sparked a new industrial revolution,” 25 years after inventing the graphics processing unit.
“AI is certainly the most important technology of our time, and potentially of all times.”
Huang, 61, also told graduates that he wished he had started his career at this time.
“The whole world is reset. You’re at the starting lines with everybody else. An industry is being reinvented. You now have the instruments, the instruments necessary to advance science in so many different fields,” Huang said.
“The greatest challenges of our time, unimaginable challenges to overcome in the past, all of a sudden seem possible to tackle.”
In the afternoon, Huang will participate in a fireside chat with the university’s Council Chairman Harry Sham, teachers and students.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by Christopher Cushing)