By Robbie Whelan
A group of seven Democratic U.S. senators is pushing back on President Trump's decision this week to allow Nvidia to sell its second-most advanced generation of artificial intelligence chips in China.
In a letter sent Friday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D., Va.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo.), Andy Kim (D., N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) criticized the administration's authorization of Nvidia's H200 chip for sale in China.
"The President's dangerous decision to give away critical national security controls represents a significant departure from longstanding bipartisan efforts to ensure that U.S. technology does not turbocharge China's military and technological capabilities," the senators wrote.
Trump announced on Monday that he had informed Chinese leader Xi Jinping that the U.S. will allow Nvidia to ship the H200 to China and other countries "under conditions that allow for strong national security." Nvidia has committed to paying 25% of the revenue generated by the China sales of the chip to the U.S. government.
In a statement, an Nvidia spokesperson said Trump's decision "strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America." The company has argued that China's response to a broad ban on AI chip sales has been to accelerate its domestic chip development, making homegrown companies like Huawei more competitive in the long term.
Nvidia has been effectively banned from selling any of its advanced AI chips in China since April, when the Trump administration tightened export controls on critical technology. In August, Trump agreed to allow Nvidia to sell its H20 chip -- a downgraded version of the H200 designed specifically for China -- in return for sharing 15% of its sales with the government. That plan was derailed when Chinese authorities discouraged customers from buying it.
Soon after, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang began advocating for the president to allow the company to sell a less-powerful version of its Blackwell chips in China. Trump declined to do so after several members of his cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, brought up major security concerns.
In the letter, the Democratic senators pointed out that just hours before Trump reversed course and authorized the sale of H200, which is estimated to be almost six times as powerful as the H20, the Justice Department announced several prosecutions against smugglers for allegedly sneaking thousands of H200 chips into China in violation of export laws.
The senators noted that the Justice Department case against the smugglers is built on the idea that Nvidia's advanced chips are the "building blocks of AI superiority" and "are integral to modern military applications." They also argued that selling H200 chips in China puts American startups, research labs and universities at a disadvantage, with advanced AI chips in short supply.
"We are managing our supply chain to ensure that licensed sales of the H200 to authorized customers in China will have no impact on our ability to supply customers in the United States," Nvidia's spokesperson said.
The Commerce Department rejected the senators' concerns.
"These same Democrats were silent when the last administration sold out our national security to the world," a department spokesman said. "Secretary Lutnick is committed to strong export controls and strict safeguards for critical technologies, while ensuring America remains the global leader in innovation."
Friday's letter also raised concerns about "the appearance of corruption and insider access," noting that Huang and Nvidia had recently mounted a "charm offensive" in Washington, including private meetings with the president and a donation by the company to Trump's White House ballroom construction fund.
In recent months, Huang has stepped up efforts to persuade administration officials and other influential figures in Washington that Nvidia should be allowed to sell its hardware in China to keep AI developers there dependent on American technology -- rather than that produced by Chinese competitors like Huawei.
A White House spokesman didn't reply to a request for comment.
The Friday letter is the second effort coming from the Senate in recent weeks to push back on Nvidia's plans to restart sales in China, which the company has said could produce tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue.
Last week, a bipartisan group of senators including China hawk Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) unveiled the Safe Chips Act, a bill that would require the Commerce Department to deny export licenses for 30 months for the sale of certain advanced chips to customers in China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Write to Robbie Whelan at robbie.whelan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 12, 2025 17:44 ET (22:44 GMT)
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