On July 29, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that President Trump’s team decided to let Nvidia send its H20 AI chips to China. The goal: stop China from getting too far ahead in the global chip race.
Nvidia had recently asked the U.S. government for permission to resume sales of its H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. These chips are legal for export but have lower computing power than those sold outside China due to past U.S. restrictions.
Hassett said in an interview with Fox News that if the U.S. blocks chip sales, China may simply build its own — which could become a bigger threat.
“If China’s not buying chips from us, then they’re innovating, making their own chips,” Hassett said. “And the one thing we don’t want is for them to jump ahead in the race for chips.”
This decision comes amid global competition in artificial intelligence (AI), where advanced chips play a critical role.
