Senator calls for Nvidia CEO to testify on Trump approval for China chip sales

WASHINGTON – Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify after President Donald Trump announced plans to greenlight the sale of Nvidia’s second most advanced artificial intelligence chip to China.

In a speech on the Senate floor, he also expressed concerns that Trump could potentially silence his own Justice Department after it announced a crackdown on China on a smuggling operation involving chips known as H200, the same day Trump announced the policy change.

“Is Donald Trump going to muzzle his own Justice Department because he doesn’t want Americans to know that he’s selling out our national security?” he asked.

The Department of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment. “There is a distinct difference between the illegal smuggling of chips to unknown buyers without legal oversight and the export of chips to specially designated end users following national security inspections,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. he said.

In its statement, Nvidia emphasized that H200 sales to China would still need a license from the US government, noting that the overall share of chips shipped to China is a small percentage of the advanced AI chips currently sold to US customers. “America’s foreign rivals and the Administration’s critics are pressing for the same conclusion: forcing huge commercial markets to support and encourage foreign competition,” the company said.

Conservatives and Democratic lawmakers in China sharply criticized the decision to greenlight the chip over concerns that Beijing could use the technology to strengthen its military.

This article has been generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.