U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
04/14/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/15/2025 22:33
Warren Urges Commerce Department to Block AI Chip Exports to China Amid Reports of Nvidia Backroom Deal
April 14, 2025
Previous ArticleWarren Urges Commerce Department to Block AI Chip Exports to China Amid Reports of Nvidia Backroom Deal
"Nvidia is not only selling to PRC national champions; it is doing so at the expense of U.S. startups and small businesses."
"Contrary to Nvidia's promise to the President, the company appears poised to help build more cutting-edge data centers in the PRC-not in the United States."
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urging the Department to immediately move forward with restrictions on the export of Nvidia's H20 and other advanced AI chips to the People's Republic of China (PRC), citing serious national security risks and troubling new details about the Trump Administration's handling of the matter.
"I write with great concern regarding reports that the Commerce Department has paused its plan to restrict the export of powerful advanced AI chips like Nvidia's H20 to the People's Republic of China (PRC)," wrote Ranking Member Warren.
Recent reports indicate that Commerce quietly paused its plan to restrict H20 exports after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a $1-million-per-head dinner with President Donald Trump-where Huang reportedly promised to build more data centers in the United States. In the letter, however, Ranking Member Warren warns that Nvidia's continued export of the chip will do the opposite of bringing manufacturing back to the United States.
"In reality, the company's continued export of the H20 will result in the opposite outcome: more data centers for the PRC, less for the United States. Indeed, Nvidia appears to be prioritizing business with PRC national champions, many of which have ties to the military, at the expense of U.S. startups and small businesses," wrote Ranking Member Warren. "I urge you to take swift action to address this critical risk to our national security."
Nvidia is a powerful AI inference chip optimized for deploying AI models on a large scale. Previously, the Biden Administration restricted exports of the high-bandwidth memory used in H20 chips, but limits on the chips themselves were never finalized. Meanwhile, companies like ByteDance have reportedly placed billions of dollars of H20 orders-totaling more than a million chips-far more than the PRC could produce on its own. Allowing the PRC to acquire these chips would vastly expand the PRC's AI capabilities, allowing the government to deploy powerful AI systems to enhance its military and surveillance apparatus. .
In the letter, Ranking Member Warren warned that this rush to supply Chinese firms is coming at the expense of U.S. small businesses and startups. Domestic AI developers have reported serious chip shortages, and Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell processors are already backlogged through the end of 2025. Ranking Member Warren called on the Commerce Department to act immediately, warning that further delay would endanger U.S. national security and global technological leadership.
"Contrary to Nvidia's promise to the President, the company appears poised to help build more cutting-edge data centers in the PRC-not in the United States," wrote Ranking Member Warren. "The Commerce Department cannot further delay undertaking necessary and urgent action on the H20 to protect U.S. national security. I urge you to act quickly."
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