An employee of NVIDIA China is in distress

Author: Gu Lingyu, Tencent Technology

Editor: Su Yang, Tencent Technology

"As long as you join NVIDIA, you will grow old with me, and I feel very proud." Huang Renxun told employees in the China region at the annual meeting in January 2025.

In the past few years, NVIDIA employees in the China region have experienced tightening chip export restrictions and witnessed an increase in colleagues and expansion of office space. Now, the balance that had been maintained between these two changes has been disrupted by Huang Renxun's resignation. Some people are beginning to reconsider their career futures.

A person close to NVIDIA's China region revealed that for nearly a week, he and his colleagues have been in a state of high anxiety. Although no adjustment news has been received yet, what makes them uneasy is that this change may affect the already restricted business in the China region.

He believes that even without considering complex factors such as geopolitics, the organizational structure where about 60 executives reported directly to Huang Renxun will be difficult to maintain after the new CEO takes office, and structural adjustments will almost be inevitable. At that time, whether the team can continue to receive the same support is unknown. In his view, the rapid growth of NVIDIA's workforce in the China region over the past two years is directly related to Huang Renxun's promotion.

Huang Renxun enjoys a very high reputation within the company, and after the announcement of his resignation, employees are still trying to persuade him to stay.

According to a report by Phoenix Technology on November 13, in a spontaneous vote initiated by employees on NVIDIA's internal network, over 97% of participants hope Huang Renxun will remain. A report by Wired stated that a post requesting the board to consider employee opinions received over 1,600 comments, most of which supported Huang Renxun's reinstatement.

Huang Renxun's internal reputation comes from his personal abilities, long-term business achievements, and NVIDIA's generous treatment of employees.

A headhunter stated that NVIDIA's China region offers very generous compensation, and they rarely prioritize NVIDIA employees as target candidates in their daily recruitment, saying, "Their lives are too good, making it hard to poach them."

NVIDIA's fiscal year 2026 annual report disclosed that to fulfill its tax withholding obligations for equity awards, the company withheld about 51 million shares through net settlement, with a total value of approximately $7.9 billion.

For some employees in China, beyond retention, there are more specific career anxieties.

An employee from the China region interviewed by Phoenix Technology expressed concern about the impact on business, stating, "I am already preparing to start looking for a job." Another employee mentioned that the employee group in the China region is relatively silent, while the overseas group is discussing whether Huang Renxun can return.

Currently, NVIDIA has not made any official announcements about downsizing its China team. Job postings on NVIDIA's official recruitment platform can still be found for positions located in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, involving areas such as AI developer technology, GPU architecture, circuit verification, and autonomous driving testing, including campus recruitment positions for the class of 2027.

In recent years, even though NVIDIA's China region has always been under compliance pressure, the workforce has continued to expand.

Public information shows that NVIDIA has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. In recent years, Huang Renxun's participation in employee annual meetings in China has become a regular event.

In January 2025, Huang Renxun stated at the annual meeting in Beijing that the company has nearly 4,000 employees in China, mainly engaged in research and development, and also involved in collaboration with local partners. He also mentioned that the employee turnover rate in the China region is about 0.9%, lower than the global level of about 2%.

"We're almost running out of seats." said the aforementioned NVIDIA China region person.

The increase in the number of employees is also driving changes in office locations. In May 2025, NVIDIA established a new office in Shanghai, located at 600 Naxian Road, Zhangjiang, Shanghai. In January 2026, Huang Renxun visited the new office in Shanghai to communicate with employees.

According to NVIDIA's financial report, as of the quarter ending April 26, 2026, NVIDIA did not ship Hopper architecture data center products to China, while the related sales for the same period in 2025 were $4.6 billion.

The quarterly report as of July 26, 2026, shows that shipments of Hopper products to China have somewhat recovered, but the revenue contribution is still less than 1% of the company's global data center revenue. NVIDIA also emphasized that in the performance guidance for the next quarter, it will continue not to include any data center computing revenue from China.

The sales restrictions on advanced AI chips do not mean that NVIDIA's business in China has come to a halt; the China team is involved in the delivery and after-sales of gaming graphics cards, some AI products, and autonomous driving businesses.

Based on the headquarters location of direct customers, in fiscal year 2026, customers from mainland China and Hong Kong still contributed approximately $19.68 billion in revenue to NVIDIA, accounting for about 9.1% of global revenue.