GOP”.Trump’s Endorsement of Nvidia AI Chip Sales to China Draws Cold Response from GOP

President Donald Trump’s recent decision to allow U.S. semiconductor leader Nvidia to sell more advanced chips to China has sparked intense debate among Republican lawmakers concerned about Beijing gaining a strategic edge in the global AI race.

The announcement, made in a Truth Social post on Monday evening, outlines a deal that would let Nvidia ship its H200 artificial‑intelligence processors to Chinese customers, provided the U.S. government receives a 25 percent share of the sales revenue.

While the H200 is not Nvidia’s top‑of‑the‑line offering, it outperforms the company’s H20 series, which were originally engineered for the Chinese market. The H200 delivers higher compute density, greater memory bandwidth, and more efficient power consumption—attributes that can accelerate AI model training and inference workloads.

Earlier this summer, the White House granted a limited license for Nvidia and its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to export less‑capable chips to China in exchange for a 15 percent revenue share. Chinese officials, however, warned domestic firms against purchasing those products, signaling a cautious approach to U.S. technology imports.

According to the president’s post, Chinese President Xi Jinping responded positively to the proposal, suggesting a willingness on both sides to move forward.

Industry analysts caution that providing China with higher‑performance hardware could erode the United States’ lead in AI infrastructure. The chips’ superior processing power would enable Chinese developers to train larger models faster, narrowing the gap in areas such as natural‑language processing, computer vision, and autonomous systems.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R‑SC) expressed alarm, stating, “If you can prove this will accelerate their military capability, I’ll oppose it.” Senator Josh Hawley (R‑MO) echoed similar concerns, emphasizing that China’s AI progress has largely depended on imported U.S. hardware. “We need to constrain their ability to leverage our technology,” Hawley said.

Senator John Cornyn (R‑TX) offered a succinct response: “I’m concerned.” The Republican‑led House Select Committee on China reinforced the warning, noting that the H200’s performance could help Beijing close the compute gap, strengthen its military applications, and expand surveillance capabilities. The committee warned that once advanced technology is exported, China can reverse‑engineer it and mass‑produce competitive versions, following a pattern observed across critical industries.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai reiterated the administration’s stance: “We are committed to maintaining the dominance of the American technology stack without compromising national security.”

Not all Republicans share the same level of skepticism. Senator Thom Tillis (R‑NC) said, “I don’t have a problem with providing some chips, but we need to know where they’re going and how they’ll be used.”

Legislative efforts to curb advanced chip exports are gaining bipartisan traction. Senator Pete Ricketts (R‑NE) recently introduced a bill that would prohibit export licenses for high‑performance AI chips to China and other adversarial nations for at least 30 months. “Denying Beijing access to the world’s best AI chips is essential to our national security,” Ricketts argued.

Co‑sponsor Senator Tom Cotton (R‑AR) added, “Protecting American AI innovation from Communist China is crucial if we are to win the AI race.”

Democratic leaders have also voiced strong objections. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D‑VA) criticized the administration’s “haphazard and transactional approach to export policy,” warning it could squander U.S. AI leadership. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D‑MA) highlighted a recent Department of Justice crackdown on a China‑linked AI smuggling network, noting that the same chips earmarked for export were described by the DOJ as “building blocks of AI superiority.” She called for a congressional hearing to hold the administration accountable for national‑security risks.

Overall, the debate underscores a fundamental tension: balancing commercial interests and the lucrative Chinese market against the strategic imperative to preserve America’s technological edge. As the U.S. evaluates the long‑term implications of chip exports, policymakers, industry executives, and security experts will continue to scrutinize how best to protect the nation’s AI leadership while managing the complex dynamics of global trade.