By Alexandra Alper
(Reuters) -Nvidia’s superior Blackwell chip for synthetic intelligence wouldn’t be obtainable to “different individuals,” U.S. President Donald Trump stated Sunday.
Nvidia, the world’s most beneficial firm, dominates the marketplace for AI chips.
Questions have swirled about whether or not Trump would enable shipments of a model of the Blackwell to China since August, when he steered he may enable gross sales of a scaled-down model of Nvidia’s next-generation superior GPU chip in China.
Nevertheless, Trump’s remarks to reporters aboard Air Power One recommend his administration will not be inclined to grant broad abroad entry to the prized chip.
“The brand new Blackwell that simply got here out, it is 10 years forward of each different chip,” Trump stated as he flew to Washington after a weekend in Florida. “However no, we do not give that chip to different individuals,” he added.
The chance that Blackwell chips may be offered to Chinese language corporations has drawn criticism from China hawks in Washington, who concern the expertise would supercharge China’s army capabilities and speed up its AI growth.
Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, who chairs the Home Choose Committee on China, stated such a transfer “can be akin (to) giving Iran weapons-grade uranium.”
Trump had hinted he may talk about the chips with Chinese language President Xi Jinping forward of their summit in South Korea final week, however in the end stated the subject didn’t come up.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated final week that Nvidia has not sought U.S. export licenses for the Chinese language market due to Beijing’s stance on the corporate.
“They’ve made it very clear that they do not need Nvidia to be there proper now,” he stated throughout a builders’ occasion, including that it wanted entry to China to fund U.S.-based analysis and growth.
Nvidia stated on Friday that it might provide greater than 260,000 Blackwell AI chips to South Korea and among the nation’s largest companies, together with Samsung Electronics.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Jasper Ward; Enhancing by Sergio Non and Himani Sarkar)
