Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.<\/p>\n
Before Monday\u2019s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia\u2019s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.<\/p>\n
Trump posted<\/a> to Truth Social on Monday: \u201cI have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. President Xi responded positively!\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said the Department of Commerce was finalising the details and that he was planning to make the same offer to other chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. Nvidia\u2019s H200 chips are the company\u2019s second most powerful, and far more advanced than the H20, which was originally designed as a lower-powered model for the Chinese market that would not breach restrictions, but which the US banned anyway in April.<\/p>\n The president said the US would receive 25% of the proceeds, more than the 15% previously agreed to<\/a> with Nvidia in an earlier deal to lift restrictions, and following similar unorthodox plans for the federal government to take a financial cut from private business dealings.<\/p>\n In August, Trump said the US would receive a 10% stake<\/a> in the tech company Intel. Some lawmakers have questioned the legality<\/a> of such arrangements.<\/p>\n According to the Hill, the Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andy Kim of New Jersey sent letters<\/a> to the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, last week outlining their concerns over selling these chips to China and saying it risked powering the country\u2019s \u201csurveillance, censorship and military applications\u201d.<\/p>\n They wrote: \u201cI urge you to stop ignoring the input of bipartisan members of Congress and your own experts in order to cut deals that trade away America\u2019s national security.\u201d<\/p>\n On social media, Warren called for Huang to appear before Congress to testify under oath.<\/p>\n Huang has worked closely with Trump since the inauguration and has made several trips to the White House. The CEO attended the president\u2019s AI summit in July, met Trump as recently as last week and was even a guest at the White House dinner for the Saudi crown price, Mohammed bin Salman. Huang has pledged to invest $500bn in AI infrastructure<\/a> in the US over the next four years.<\/p>\n