Trump allowed China to buy AI chips from Nvidia. What the media is writing
US President Donald Trump has announced that semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia will be able to sell some of its chips for artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The Congress fears that this decision will undermine the national security of the United States. At the same time, Google plans to seize leadership in the production of AI processors. What the media write about the situation with chips is in the Izvestia digest.
Bloomberg: Nvidia has received Trump's approval to sell H200 AI chips in China
US President Donald Trump has allowed Nvidia to supply its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China in exchange for a 25% tariff. This move allows the world's most expensive company to potentially recover billions of dollars of lost business in a key global market. The decision was announced by Trump in a post on his Truth Social network, the culmination of weeks of discussion with advisers on the issue of allowing the export of H200 to China.
Bloomberg
Trump said he had informed Chinese President Xi Jinping about the decision, and Xi reacted positively. He added that shipments would only be made to "approved customers," and that chip manufacturers such as Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., will also be eligible for export.
The move represents a victory for Nvidia in its bid to convince Trump and Congress to loosen export controls that have prevented the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer from selling its AI chips. CEO Jensen Huang established a close relationship with Trump after the November 2024 election and used those connections to make the case that restrictions only promote the growth of Chinese leaders like Huawei Technologies.
Politico: The United States is in danger of losing leadership in the field of artificial intelligence
Chris McGuire, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, called Trump's decision a "big self-inflicted wound" that could ultimately deprive the United States of leadership in artificial intelligence. It will depend on how many H200 chips the U.S. sells to China and how quickly it will provide access to other, more advanced chips.
Politico
McGuire served on the National Security Council under President Joe Biden and at the State Department under Trump, focusing on technology and China in both positions. Trump's message added that Nvidia's top-end Blackwell chips and future Rubin chips are not included [in exports], reflecting the administration's decision to retain access to its most advanced artificial intelligence equipment.
One of the pitfalls is whether Nvidia will find Chinese buyers for these chips. Beijing has previously expressed concern about the security of Nvidia's semiconductors. Although Chinese companies want to receive the H200, regulators are concerned about dependence on American chips and the need to promote domestic alternatives.
NBC News: Congress is concerned about the sale of chips to China
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has expressed serious concerns about allowing Chinese customers to buy American artificial intelligence chips. Last week, Nvidia CEO Huang met with Republican senators on Capitol Hill to discuss artificial intelligence policy.
NBC News
Republican Senator John F. Kennedy of Louisiana did not attend the meeting because, according to him, he did not consider Huang "an objective and trustworthy source of information about whether we should sell chips to China." Kennedy said Huang wanted to sell to Chinese customers for financial gain. Others, such as Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said it was a "useful discussion."
Republican Senator Pete Ricketts said last week that "denying Beijing access to these AI chips is crucial to our national security." Democrats also expressed concern. Ricketts joined Senator Chris Coons to introduce the "Safe Chips Act."
Reuters: The U.S. Department of Justice has charged two Chinese with attempting to smuggle Nvidia chips.
Two Chinese men were detained on suspicion of smuggling Nvidia products. Prosecutors allege that 43-year-old Fanyue Gong from New York and 58-year-old Canadian citizen Benlin Yuan independently conspired with employees of a Hong Kong logistics company and a Chinese artificial intelligence technology company to circumvent U.S. export controls.
Reuters
In court documents, prosecutors said that Gong and his accomplices purchased Nvidia chips through fake buyers and intermediaries and falsely claimed that the goods were intended for customers from the United States or third countries such as Taiwan and Thailand. According to the criminal case, the chips were sent to several warehouses in the United States, where the attackers removed Nvidia labels and pasted labels with the company's name, which the prosecutor's office considers fake. The chips were then prepared for export, according to the statement.
In a separate complaint, prosecutors said Yuan helped recruit and organize individuals to inspect mislabeled chips on behalf of a Hong Kong logistics company. Yuan allegedly agreed to instruct inspectors not to disclose that the goods were destined for China, and he also instructed them to negotiate in order to create a story that his company could use to get the chips and other equipment returned after they were seized by federal authorities. According to prosecutors, the scheme has been in operation since at least November 2023.
Financial Times: Google's TPU chip makes OpenAI wary and scares Nvidia investors
Google's secret weapon in the race for artificial intelligence is the TPU chip. He helped his search group models outpace OpenAI and forced tech investors to take a fresh look at the threat to Nvidia's dominance. By 2028, Google plans to more than double the production of its processors in order to "compete on equal terms with Nvidia, the king of the jungle," in creating and operating advanced artificial intelligence systems.
Financial Times
Nvidia investors were also alarmed by the prospect of Google offering TPUs to customers outside of its cloud computing platform. In particular, a deal was recently signed to supply the AI startup Anthropic with 1 million TPUs worth tens of billions of dollars. Google claims that vertical integration — the development of hardware and software, as well as chips for AI in—house - will provide both technical advantages and huge profits.
Morgan Stanley estimates that every 500,000 TPUs sold to third-party customers could generate $13 billion in revenue for Google. The company is working on processor development mainly with chip design partner Broadcom, as well as MediaTek. Morgan Stanley analysts also predict that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will produce 3.2 million TPUs next year, 5 million in 2027, and 7 million in 2028.
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