According to Bloomberg, John Moolenaar, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China, said on Friday that the Trump administration’s decision to allow Nvidia to resume exports of its H20 AI chips to China may strengthen China’s military strength and strengthen its ability to compete with the United States in the field of AI. Nvidia believes that this move is in the interest of the United States.
In a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday, Mullenar said: "The H20 is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip that far exceeds China's local technology level and will therefore significantly promote China's AI development. We must not allow U.S. companies to sell these critical AI assets to Chinese entities."
In fact, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously stated in an interview that the Chinese military will not seek to use American technology because China already has sufficient computing power.
Nvidia announced this week that it will resume sales of H20 chips to China, and the U.S. government has guaranteed that relevant licenses will be granted. Huang said on Wednesday that the United States has not yet officially approved any H20 chip shipments, but the company expects approval soon.
Mullenar asked the Commerce Department to provide a briefing to his committee by August 8 to explain the rationale for this policy change. He also asked the Commerce Department to clarify how the United States will issue licenses for H20 and how many chips will ultimately be allowed to be shipped to China.
“Approval of large-scale sales of H20 may give China access to the computing power needed to develop powerful AI models that will be freely available to users like DeepSeek R1,” Mullenar said. “As China has done in many other industries, this is a deliberate strategy to capture market share and become a global standard.”
The Commerce Department responded to Mueller's request by referring to Lutnick's remarks in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. Lutnick said at the time that the chips Nvidia planned to sell would be slower than the most advanced chips used by U.S. companies.
In an emailed statement, Nvidia reiterated its position that it is in the U.S. interest to allow U.S. hardware to become the foundation for the construction of global AI systems.
"When the whole world relies on the development of the American technology system, the United States is the winner. The government makes decisions that are most beneficial to the United States, which helps consolidate the United States' technological leadership, promote economic growth, and ensure national security." Nvidia said.
In response to a reporter's question, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that the United States should abandon its zero-sum mentality and continue to lift a series of unreasonable economic and trade restrictions on China.