Nvidia ramps up hiring in China to focus on autonomous driving technology

Us tech giant Nvidia has added hundreds of employees in China this year to boost research and development capabilities and focus on the latest autonomous driving technology.

The artificial intelligence chipmaker will have about 4,000 employees in China by the end of the year, up from about 3,000 at the start of the year, Bloomberg said Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Nvidia has added about 200 employees in Beijing to bolster its autonomous driving research team, according to people familiar with the matter. Nvidia has also expanded its after-sales service and web software development teams, people familiar with the matter said.

Reuters reported that Nvidia documents released in February showed that it employed about 29,600 people in 36 countries at the end of fiscal 2024.

Nvidia is ramping up hiring around the world to keep up with frenzied customer demand for artificial intelligence chips. Although Nvidia has been unable to sell its most advanced chips to China because of U.S. trade restrictions, the country remains an important market and research and development center for the company, with sales of $5.4 billion in the last quarter.

Nvidia has sought to maintain good relations with Beijing, and its chief executive, Jen-Hsun Huang, praised the mainland's contributions to technology during a visit to Hong Kong a few weeks ago. But China's antitrust regulator this week announced an investigation into Nvidia's 2020 acquisition of Mellanox, which received conditional approval from Chinese authorities at the time.

The antitrust investigation marks another escalation in the technology war between China and the United States. The United States has just announced its third crackdown on China's semiconductor industry in three years, and 136 Chinese entities have been blacklisted.

Meanwhile, a Guancha.com check on Thursday found that all products on Nvidia's online shopping site Tmall's official flagship store had been removed for unknown reasons. However, people familiar with the matter told the interface news that the flagship store is only used as a display of goods, not directly sold, so there is no "off the shelf". Nvidia China's official Weibo also issued a statement, saying that the recent social media upload of Nvidia off China is untrue rumors, China is an important market for Nvidia, the company will continue to provide Chinese customers with the best quality and efficient products and services.