Donald Trump has suggested he might allow Nvidia to sell chips in China that are more technology advanced than currently permitted, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness US artificial intelligence capabilities to supercharge its military.<\/p>\n
In a briefing on Monday, the president suggested he could \u201cmake a deal\u201d for Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its flagship Blackwell chip in China. The move could open the door to China securing more advanced computing power from the US, even as the two countries battle for technology supremacy<\/a>, critics said.<\/p>\n \u201cJensen [Huang, Nvidia<\/a> CEO] also has the new chip, the Blackwell. A somewhat enhanced-in-a-negative-way Blackwell. In other words, take 30% to 50% off of it,\u201d Trump told reporters in an apparent reference to slashing the chip\u2019s computing power.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s coming to see me again about that, but that will be an un-enhanced version of the big one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The move sparked unease across Washington, where China hawks of both parties have long sought to keep Beijing generations behind US AI technology. Nvidia\u2019s chips are a major driver of the AI boom<\/a>, highly sought-after by both China and the US.<\/p>\n \u201cI am concerned by reports that the US government will be taking a cut of the proceeds from the sale of advanced H20 and equivalent chips to China,\u201d John Moolenaar, the Republican head of the House China committee, told the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEven with scaled-down versions of flagship Nvidia [chips], China<\/a> could spend and buy enough of them to build world-leading, frontier-scale AI supercomputers,\u201d said Saif Khan, former director of technology and national security at the White House national security council under Joe Biden, who heavily restricted US AI chip exports abroad. \u201cThis could directly lead to China leapfrogging America in AI capabilities.\u201c<\/p>\n It comes after the Trump administration confirmed an unprecedented deal with Nvidia<\/a> \u2013 and fellow chipmaker AMD \u2013 to give the US government 15% of revenue from sales of some advanced chips in China. The arrangement covers revenue from Chinese sales of Nvidia\u2019s H20 chips, and AMD\u2019s MI308 chips.<\/p>\n The H20 and MI308 chips were banned from sale to China in April, despite the lower-powered H20 being designed specifically to abide by restrictions introduced by the Biden administration. However Nvidia said last month<\/a> it had won clearance to resume shipments and hoped to start deliveries soon.<\/p>\n Trump on Monday defended the agreement: \u201cI said, \u2018Listen, I want 20% if I\u2019m going to approve this for you, for the country\u2019\u201d, in an apparent reference to the percentage he initially sought before negotiations with Nvidia.<\/p>\n