US President Donald Trump said that artificial intelligence giant Nvidia’s most advanced chips will be reserved for US companies and kept away from China and other countries.
During a taped interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only American customers should have access to cutting-edge Blackwell chips provided by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
“The most advanced, we won’t let anyone get it but the United States,” he told CBS, repeating comments he made earlier to reporters while returning to Washington from a weekend in Florida. “We don’t give the Blackwell chip to other people,” he said during the flight.
The statements suggest that Trump may impose tougher restrictions on cutting-edge U.S. AI chips than U.S. officials previously indicated, blocking China and perhaps the rest of the world from access to more advanced semiconductors.
In July, the Trump administration released a new AI blueprint that seeks to relax environmental rules and dramatically expand AI exports to allies, in an effort to maintain America’s edge over China in critical technology.
Just last Friday, Nvidia said it would supply more than 260,000 Blackwell AI chips to South Korea and some of the country’s largest companies, including Samsung Electronics.
Questions about whether Trump would allow a miniature version of Blackwell chips to be shipped to China have also grown since August, when he indicated he might allow such sales.
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Trump told CBS he would not allow Blackwell’s more advanced devices to be sold to Chinese companies, but he did not rule out a path to a less capable version of the chip. He said during an interview with “60 Minutes”: “We will allow them to deal with Nvidia, but not in terms of the most advanced.”
The prospect of selling any version of Blackwell’s chips to Chinese companies has drawn criticism from hawks in Washington, who fear the technology will boost China’s military capabilities and accelerate the development of its artificial intelligence.
Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, said such a move “would be tantamount to giving Iran weapons-grade uranium.”
Trump had hinted that he might discuss chips with Chinese President Xi Jinping before their summit in South Korea last week, but ultimately said the topic had not been raised.
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CEO Jensen Huang said last week that NVIDIA had not sought US export licenses for the Chinese market because of Beijing’s stance on the company.
“They’ve made it very clear that they don’t want Nvidia to be there right now,” he said during a developer event, adding that it needs access to China to fund U.S. R&D.
(Tags for translation) Nvidia Blackwell chips export restrictions Trump
