Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, arrives at a Korean restaurant for a dinner meeting with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin in Seoul, South Korea, June 5, 2026.
Chris Jung | Nurphoto Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told shareholders on Wednesday that if a commercial opportunity conflicts with US national security, the company will put US interests first.
“National security comes first,” Huang told a panel shortly after the conclusion of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
He added that if a company wants to smuggle Nvidia’s chips or systems into countries with export restrictions – such as China – they will have challenges to operate because Nvidia will not provide support or maintenance.
“Advanced AI data centers are large integrated systems that require reliable hardware, software, networking, and ongoing support,” Huang said. “Trying to congregate data centers with some smuggled products is borderline.”
Huang’s comments come as regulators in Washington and the Trump administration are increasingly wary that exporting AI software and hardware to China and other countries poses a threat to national security.
Earlier this month, Anthropic, which uses Nvidia chips, shut down the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after the US government ordered it to disable access to its most advanced models.
Nvidia’s chips have had export controls placed on them since 2022, forcing the company to produce China-specific chips in the region that comply with US government benchmarks. But last year, the US cleared the company’s H200 chip – the same model used by US companies – for export to the region.
Huang said the US government has approved those licenses, but Nvidia has yet to receive the proceeds from the chips and that Nvidia does not know whether China will allow imports of its products. About 9% of Nvidia’s fiscal 2026 revenue comes from China, including Hong Kong, a smaller share than in 2025 and 2024.
Huang told shareholders during the meeting that the question of AI’s return on investment “has been answered.”
He said that if the output of AI is useful, such as generating code, then using Nvidia’s system to generate tokens, or pieces of AI output, it is profitable and means that companies need more computing power. He noted that GitHub has seen pull requests nearly triple this year because of AI.
“Nvidia’s systems may be less expensive to buy, but Nvidia produces the lowest cost tokens, the highest token output, and the highest revenue,” Huang said.
He also emphasized that Nvidia plans to return 50% of the company’s free cash flow to investors through share buybacks and dividends over the next few years.
Nvidia generated more than $96 billion in free cash flow in its 2026 fiscal year.
“Nvidia offers investors a unique combination of exceptional growth, strong margins, and free cash flow, as well as growing capital gains,” Huang said.
At the annual meeting, shareholders approved the company’s executive compensation plan on an advisory basis and re-elected all 10 board members. One shareholder proposal to change the company’s bylaws so that all shareholder votes win by a simple majority vote.
