President Donald Trump recently announced he has approved the sale of advanced computer chips to China. Manufactured by Nvidia, the chips are one of the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators on the market. But the president’s decision to export these chips to China clearly raises national security concerns.
Referred to as the H200, the chip enables cutting-edge AI applications, including capabilities with potential military or intelligence use. Until Trump’s announcement, the U.S. restricted the export of the H200 to several countries, including China, because of its potential to enhance an adversary’s military or strategic advantage.
Ironically, the same day that Trump made his approval announcement, the Justice Department announced charges against two Chinese businessmen for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than $160 million worth of H200 chips to China for use by the Chinese military. In making the announcement, the Justice Department said the arrests were a victory in preventing China from building up its military.
“These chips are the building blocks of AI superiority and are integral to modern military applications. The country that controls these chips will control AI technology; the country that controls AI technology will control the future,” said the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas will aggressively prosecute anyone who attempts to compromise America’s technological edge.”
The president said in a social media post that national security will be protected with the sale of the chips to China, American jobs will be created and America’s lead in AI will be maintained. Trump also said 25% of the revenue from the sales would go to the government as a tax. Trump noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping responded “positively” to his decision. However, congressional members on both sides of the aisle are concerned.
U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says that allowing sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China could help the country catch up to the U.S. on AI computing power.
Moolenaar contends the H200 provides 32% more processing power and 50% more memory bandwidth than China’s best chip. He says China will use the chips to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance.
“Nvidia should be under no illusions — China will rip off its technology, mass produce it themselves, and seek to end Nvidia as a competitor,” said Moolenaar. “That is China’s playbook and it is using it in every critical industry.”
Reportedly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had major security concerns about the Chinese chip sales.
Democrats are also not shy about criticizing the decision. Eight senators — Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren, Brian Schatz, Andy Kim, Elissa Slotkin, and Michael Bennet — called Trump’s decision a “colossal economic and national security failure.”
“Access to these chips would give China’s military transformational technology to make weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyber attacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector,” they said.
The senators noted that DeepSeek, a giant Chinese AI company, admitted just a few weeks ago that the lack of access to advanced American-designed AI chips is the single biggest impediment to its ability to compete with U.S. AI companies.
“With this decision,” the eight senators said, “President Trump is poised to remove that barrier.”
Jake Sullivan, the former national security adviser to President Joe Biden, said the decision to sell the H200 chips to China is “nuts.” He says it makes no sense that President Trump is solving China’s problem by selling them powerful American chips.
“We are literally handing away our advantage. China’s leaders can’t believe their luck,” says Sullivan.
The irony in Trump’s approving the sale of the H200 chip to China is that in his first term, Trump orchestrated a global tech campaign against China. By 2018, the U.S. had imposed a near-total export ban on U.S.-origin components to Chinese company ZTE. The ban effectively crippled ZTE’s capacity. A few months later, the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act forbade federal agencies from procuring equipment or services from Chinese companies Huawei or ZTE. Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says this posture was a statement of distrust of China.
So why the dramatic turnaround in Trump’s approach? Could it be that Trump’s new National Security Strategy takes a softer diplomatic approach to China, offering technology as a less aggressive attitude to our foremost adversary? Or could it be that Trump was influenced by Nvidia’s donation to his White House ballroom construction fund?
Either way, it’s more like the question the Wall Street Journal asked in a recent editorial. Why would the president give away one of America’s technological advantages to an adversary and its chief economic competitor?
Tom Jurkowsky is a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who served on active duty for 31 years. He is the author of the book “The Secret Sauce for Organizational Success: Communications and Leadership on the Same Page.” He served on the Anne Arundel Community College faculty as an adjunct instructor, where he lectured on current affairs.