As the reported number of coronavirus infections in China grew beyond 34,000, NVIDIA announced that it will not send employees to the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain this year. According to the company, "Given public health risks around the coronavirus, ensuring the safety of our colleagues, partners and customers is our highest concern...We've been looking forward to sharing our work in AI, 5G and vRAN with the industry. We regret not attending, but believe this is the right decision."

The list of organizations passing on MWC under the current circumstances now includes NIVIDIA along with Ericsson and LG. While Spain only confirmed its first case of the virus a week ago, some are deciding that without a vaccine and more information about the virus, which has killed more than 720 people, they'd rather stay home. MWC 2020 between February 24th and 27th, and the GSMA said in a statement that "It is of great importance to the GSMA to continue to convene the industry at this critical time where connectivity is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution. Advocating across the industry through government and ministers, policymakers, operators and industry leaders has never been more critical."

'The GSMA continues to monitor and assess the potential impact of the Coronavirus on MWC Barcelona 2020 as the health and safety of our exhibitors, attendees and staff are of paramount importance."