Nvidia sees a $200 billion total addressable market for CPUs, and that includes China.

CEO Jensen Huang made the announcement during media interactions in Taipei on May 23, positioning it as the long-term opportunity for Nvidia's newly unveiled Vera CPU architecture.

Nvidia introduced the Vera CPU architecture during its Q1 fiscal year 2027 earnings call earlier that week. It marks the company's first major push into the CPU market, a segment long dominated by Intel and AMD.

Nvidia expects nearly $20 billion in standalone CPU revenue for 2026, driven by partnerships with major hyperscalers and system manufacturers.

The earnings report that preceded Huang's Taipei comments showed Nvidia firing on all cylinders. The company posted record Q1 FY27 revenue of $81.6 billion, an 85% jump year-over-year. Data center revenue alone hit $75.2 billion, accounting for the vast majority of total sales.

On China, US export controls currently restrict shipments of advanced AI chips to the country. Nvidia's near-term revenue guidance excludes certain China-related AI GPU sales due to those restrictions. Huang has expressed optimism about future sales of the H200 chip to Chinese customers if licenses are granted and restrictions ease.

Including China in the long-term CPU TAM follows the same logic. Huang isn't predicting immediate sales of Vera chips to Chinese customers. He's saying that over a multi-year horizon, China represents a meaningful portion of global CPU demand, and Nvidia intends to be positioned for that market if and when access opens up.

Nvidia's push into CPUs fundamentally changes the competitive dynamics of the semiconductor industry. Intel has been the dominant CPU maker for decades, though it has faced growing pressure from AMD and Arm-based designs from Amazon and Apple.

The nearly $20 billion in expected 2026 CPU revenue, if achieved, would make Nvidia a top-tier CPU vendor essentially overnight. That figure alone would represent a significant fraction of the total server CPU market, from a product line that didn't exist a year ago.