On Sunday, November 2, President Trump stated that Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence chip, Blackwell, will not be made available to “outsiders,” meaning it will not flow to China and other countries, and will only be used by American companies.
Nvidia’s market value surpassed $5 trillion last week, making it the highest valued company globally and dominating the artificial intelligence chip market.
In an interview segment aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program and in a speech to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said that only American customers will have access to Nvidia’s top-of-the-line Blackwell chips.
“The newly released Blackwell chip is ten years ahead of all other chips,” Trump said as he flew back to Washington from his weekend trip in Florida.
He added, “No, we are not giving this chip to anyone else.”
“We will not allow anyone outside the U.S. to access the most advanced chips,” Trump also told CBS.
Since August, there has been speculation about whether Trump would allow the export of Blackwell chips to China. At that time, the president had hinted at potentially permitting the sale of a simplified version of Nvidia’s next-generation advanced GPU chips in China.
The news of the possible sale of Blackwell chips to Chinese companies has sparked criticism from China hawks, who are concerned that this technology could significantly enhance China’s military capabilities and accelerate its artificial intelligence development.
Chairman of the House China Task Force and Republican Representative John Moolenaar described the move as being “no different from providing weapons-grade uranium to Iran.”
However, Trump told CBS that he would not allow the sale of the most advanced Blackwell chips to Chinese companies, but did not rule out the possibility of Chinese companies obtaining less advanced versions of the chips. During an interview with “60 Minutes,” he said, “We will allow them (Chinese companies) to do business with Nvidia, but we will not let them purchase the most advanced chips.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated last week that due to Beijing’s stance towards the company, Nvidia has not applied for U.S. export licenses to enter the Chinese market. He mentioned at a developer event, “They have made it very clear that they do not want Nvidia to enter the Chinese market at the moment.”
Nvidia announced on Friday that it will supply over 260,000 Blackwell AI chips to some of South Korea’s largest companies, including Samsung Electronics.
Prior to last week’s meeting between Trump and Xi, Trump had hinted at discussing these chips with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but ultimately did not mention the matter.
(Reference: Reuters)