Nvidia plans (in 2025) to open a research and development center in Shanghai to maintain its presence in China. The facility will help Nvidia understand Chinese customer demands and design products that are compliant with US export controls and sanctions. Chief Executive Jensen Huang visited China in April 2025 and discussed the plan with Shanghai’s mayor, who welcomed it and offered to provide support…Since 2022, Washington has required licenses for exports of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China. That has reduced China sales, which accounted for 13% of revenue in its last fiscal year, down from 26% before the export restrictions.

The company is seeking to lease an office space in Shanghai for the new facility to accommodate existing employees and potential new hires, the people said. Officials in the city, where Tesla’s China plant is located, have told the company that it would offer tax breaks and reduce red tape for its new project, the people said. 

The company has repeatedly created downgraded variants of chips after Washington tightened its rules so that it could keep selling to China. The practice has angered some U.S. officials, who were upset the company wasn’t being more helpful in curbing China’s AI advances. Nvidia has said it follows U.S. export rules and has advocated for selling to Chinese customers rather than ceding the market to domestic companies such as Huawei Technologies, which are filling in the gap left by Nvidia and its American peers.

Excerpt from Raffaele Huang, Nvidia to Set Up Research Center in Shanghai, Maintaining Foothold in China, WSJ, May 16, 2025