US allowed Nvidia chip shipments to China to go forward, Hassett says

White House National economic adviser Kevin Hassett, in an apparent reference to Nvidia's H20 AI chip shipments to China, said US President Donald Trump and his team decided to let the chips go in a bid to stop China from getting ahead in the race to make the best chips.

AI Brief

Nvidia applied for licenses to resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China, which comply with current US export restrictions.
H20 chips are less powerful than global versions due to past US limits under Trump and Biden administrations.
Trump warns of tech race risks, saying blocking sales could push China to develop its own advanced chips and surpass the US.

Nvidia two weeks ago said it was filing applications with the U.S. government to resume sales to China of its H20 graphics processing unit, and has been assured by the U.S. it will get the licenses soon.

H20 chips are the best it can legally offer in China but lack some of the computing power of the versions for sale outside China because of previous restrictions put in place by Trump's first administration and then President Joe Biden.

"President Trump and his team decided to let the NVIDIA chips go" to maintain America's technological edge in AI chips, Hassett told Fox News Channel’s "The Story with Martha MacCallum."

"One of the risks that you have to take seriously is that if China's not buying chips from us, then they're innovating, making their own chips. And the one thing we don't want is for them to jump ahead in the race for chips."