Trump Administration Considers New Restrictions on Nvidia AI Chip Exports Amid DeepSeek Concerns

Trump and Nvidia CEO discuss DeepSeek, AI chip exports during meeting, source says

US President Donald Trump and the CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang discussed DeepSeek - the Chinese company whose AI model's performance rocked the tech world - and tightening AI chip exports during their meeting at the White House on Friday, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Trump did not provide details of the meeting but called Huang a "gentleman." "I can't say what's gonna happen. We had a meeting. It was a good meeting," Trump said. The Friday afternoon meeting came as the government is set to further restrict AI chip exports this spring to ensure advanced computing power remains in the United States and among its allies, while looking for more ways to block China's access. "We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy," an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. "Jensen and the President discussed the importance of strengthening US technology and AI leadership." The source with knowledge of the meeting between the president and the CEO of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which makes the most advanced AI chips, said it was set up before DeepSeek rocked the tech world. The source also said the president thinks the Chinese company's emergence means "US companies don't have to spend a ton of money building a low-cost (AI) alternative." The meeting took place as worries are mounting that China is catching up to the United States in AI development. China's DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of US models. Within days, DeepSeek became the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store and stirred concerns about the United States' lead in AI, sparking a rout that wiped around $1 trillion off US technology stocks. At one point, shares of Nvidia, a top producer of AI chips, fell 17%. The Trump administration is considering tightening restrictions on Nvidia's sales of its H20 chips designed for the China market, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Conversations among Trump officials to restrict shipments of those chips to China are in early stages, the sources said, but the idea has been under consideration since Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration. H20 chips can be used to run AI software and were designed to comply with existing US curbs on shipments to China implemented by Biden. Two US lawmakers are also calling for more restrictions on exports of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips. Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by Trump to scrutinize the US export control system in light of "developments involving strategic adversaries." In 2022, the Biden administration restricted sales of Nvidia's most powerful AI chip, the H100, to China. Nvidia then released a new variant, the H800, which fell just below the export threshold, for the Chinese market. The H800 was restricted in 2023 and Nvidia came out with the H20 last year. Reuters reported on Thursday that the US Commerce Department is looking into whether DeepSeek has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China.

Lawmakers urge Donald Trump to consider new curbs on Nvidia chips used by China's DeepSeek

Two U.S. Congress members have urged President Trump's administration to consider restricting the export of Nvidia's AI chips. They allege a Chinese AI firm has extensively used these chips. This concern arises as part of a broader review of U.S. export controls. There are fears China could use AI for harmful purposes. Nvidia is ready to cooperate with the administration.Two members of U.S. Congress are calling on President Donald Trump's administration to consider restricting the export of artificial intelligence chips made by Nvidia, alleging Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has relied on them. Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by Trump to scrutinize the U.S. export control system in light of "developments involving strategic adversaries." "We ask that as part of this review, you consider the potential national security benefits of placing an export control on Nvidia's H20 and chips of similar sophistication," they wrote in a letter dated Wednesday and addressed to National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. In the letter, released on Thursday, they alleged that a sophisticated AI model recently released by DeepSeek made "extensive use" of Nvidia's H20 chip, which is currently outside the scope of U.S. export controls. The letter is a sign of growing concern in Washington about China's rapid advances in AI after DeepSeek said its free AI assistant launched last week uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent players' models, possibly marking a turning point in the level of investment needed for AI. In a separate notice reported by Axios on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives' Chief Administrative Officer notified congressional offices not to use DeepSeek. "At this time, DeepSeek is under review by the CAO and is currently unauthorized for official House use," the notice is quoted as saying. The U.S. fears China could harness AI to launch aggressive cyber attacks or even develop a bioweapon, prompting former President Joe Biden to spearhead a series of measures aimed at cracking down on China's access to AI chips and the tools that make them. DeepSeek and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia said in a statement that its products "comply with all requirements set by the government" and that the company "is ready to work with the Administration as it pursues its own approach to AI." Reuters reported on Wednesday that the administration of Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, is mulling new curbs on H20 chips, which can be used to run AI software and were designed to comply with existing U.S. curbs on shipments to China.

Trump, Nvidia CEO discuss DeepSeek, AI chip exports during meeting: source

This combination of pictures created on Jan. 31 shows Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, in Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 6, and U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 31. AFP-Yonhap U.S. President Donald Trump and the CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang discussed DeepSeek -- the Chinese company whose AI model's performance rocked the tech world -- and tightening AI chip exports during their meeting at the White House on Friday, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Trump did not provide details of the meeting but called Huang a "gentleman." "I can't say what's gonna happen. We had a meeting. It was a good meeting," Trump said. The Friday afternoon meeting came as the government is set to further restrict AI chip exports this spring to ensure advanced computing power remains in the United States and among its allies, while looking for more ways to block China's access. "We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy," an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. "Jensen and the President discussed the importance of strengthening U.S. technology and AI leadership." The source with knowledge of the meeting between the president and the CEO of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which makes the most advanced AI chips, said it was set up before DeepSeek rocked the tech world. Taiwan bans government agencies from using DeepSeek 2025-02-01 14:55 | World Is China's DeepSeek blessing or curse for Korean chipmakers? 2025-01-31 16:57 | Tech The source also said the president thinks the Chinese company's emergence means "U.S. companies don't have to spend a ton of money building a low-cost (AI) alternative." The meeting took place as worries are mounting that China is catching up to the United States in AI development. China's DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of U.S. models. Within days, DeepSeek became the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store and stirred concerns about the United States' lead in AI, sparking a rout that wiped around $1 trillion off U.S. technology stocks. At one point, shares of Nvidia, a top producer of AI chips, fell 17 percent. The deepseek logo, a keyboard, and robot hands are seen in this illustration taken Jan. 27. Reuters-Yonhap The Trump administration is considering tightening restrictions on Nvidia's sales of its H20 chips designed for the China market, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Conversations among Trump officials to restrict shipments of those chips to China are in early stages, the sources said, but the idea has been under consideration since Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration. H20 chips can be used to run AI software and were designed to comply with existing U.S. curbs on shipments to China implemented by Biden. Two U.S. lawmakers are also calling for more restrictions on exports of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips. Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by Trump to scrutinize the U.S. export control system in light of "developments involving strategic adversaries." In 2022, the Biden administration restricted sales of Nvidia's most powerful AI chip, the H100, to China. Nvidia then released a new variant, the H800, which fell just below the export threshold, for the Chinese market. The H800 was restricted in 2023 and Nvidia came out with the H20 last year. Reuters reported on Thursday that the U.S. Commerce Department is looking into whether DeepSeek has been using U.S. chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China. (Reuters)

Lawmakers Urge Trump to Consider New Curbs on Nvidia Chips Used by China's Deepseek

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two U.S. Congress members are calling on President Donald Trump's administration to consider restricting the export of artificial intelligence chips made by Nvidia, alleging Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has relied on them. Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by Trump to scrutinize the U.S. export control system in light of "developments involving strategic adversaries." "We ask that as part of this review, you consider the potential national security benefits of placing an export control on Nvidia's H20 and chips of similar sophistication," they wrote in a letter dated Wednesday and addressed to National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. In the letter, released on Thursday, they alleged that a sophisticated AI model recently released by DeepSeek made "extensive use" of Nvidia's H20 chip, which is currently outside the scope of U.S. export controls. The letter is a sign of growing concern in Washington about China's rapid advances in AI after DeepSeek said its free AI assistant launched last week uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent players' models, possibly marking a turning point in the level of investment needed for AI. The U.S. fears China could harness AI to launch aggressive cyber attacks or even develop a bioweapon, prompting former President Joe Biden to spearhead a series of measures aimed at cracking down on China's access to AI chips and the tools that make them. DeepSeek and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia said in a statement that its products "comply with all requirements set by the government" and that the company "is ready to work with the Administration as it pursues its own approach to AI." Reuters reported on Wednesday that the administration of Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, is mulling new curbs on H20 chips, which can be used to run AI software and were designed to comply with existing U.S. curbs on shipments to China. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by David Gregorio and Marguerita Choy)

Lawmakers urge Trump to consider new curbs on Nvidia chips used by China's Deepseek

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Congress members are calling on President Donald Trump's administration to consider restricting the export of artificial intelligence chips made by Nvidia, alleging Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has relied on them. Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by President Donald Trump to scrutinize the U.S. export control system in light of "developments involving strategic adversaries." "We ask that as part of this review, you consider the potential national security benefits of placing an export control on Nvidia's H20 and chips of similar sophistication," they wrote in a letter dated Wednesday and addressed to National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. They released the letter on Thursday. In the letter, they allege that a sophisticated AI model recently released by DeepSeek made "extensive use" of Nvidia's H20 chip, which is currently outside the scope of U.S. export controls. DeepSeek and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia said in a statement that its products "comply with all requirements set by the government" and that the company "is ready to work with the Administration as it pursues its own approach to AI." (Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by David Gregorio)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and President Trump reportedly discussed AI policy, DeepSeek, and hardware export controls in a meeting

First details about Friday's meeting between Donald Trump and Jensen Huang emerge. Reuters reports that on Friday, Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia, met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss American AI policy, export controls on advanced AI GPUs for China, and U.S. technology and AI leadership. "I cannot say what is going to happen," Trump reportedly said. "We had a meeting. It was a good meeting." According to the report, Trump's recent meeting with Nvidia's boss, Jensen Huang, at the White House touched upon several topics related to artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The AI section of the discussion reportedly included American AI policies, China-based DeepSeek, and the implications of its technologies on the AI services and hardware market in general, as well as U.S. export controls on advanced AI GPUs. The Reuters report does not detail the semiconductor-related part of the conversation, though given Trump's focus on the onshore production of chips, we can make some guesses. "We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy," an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement by NHK. "Jensen and the President discussed the importance of strengthening U.S. technology and AI leadership." Nvidia is the industry-leading supplier of AI GPUs for training and inference, so when the U.S. government updates its export policies, this seriously affects the company. Earlier this year, the previous U.S. government announced new export policies under which Nvidia and other companies could sell advanced AI hardware without any restrictions only to entities based in the U.S. and 18 allied countries. There would be restrictions on shipping sophisticated AI GPUs and hardware to the rest of the world, including U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East. In contrast, companies in adversary countries like China and Russia would be essentially blocked from getting high-end AI GPUs. Nvidia has criticized the move as its current and upcoming products fall under the new rules, which might affect the company materially. The Trump administration could reverse the proposed regulation, just like it reversed Biden's AI development policies earlier this month. However, it has yet to make its move. There are reports that the Biden administration is considering blocking sales of Nvidia's cut-down H20 HGX to China, which could cost Nvidia some $10 billion in revenue. Another topic that might have been discussed is Nvidia's reliance on Taiwan-based TSMC for chip production. Trump wants leading chipmakers to build their fabs in the U.S., but building cutting-edge fabs would take years. The only company with leading-edge manufacturing capacity in the U.S. is Intel. However, it is unclear whether the company has enough 18A (1.8nm-class) production capacity for itself and external customers is unclear.

Nvidia meets Trump amid AI trade tensions

AFP - Chief Executive Officer of artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Jensen Huang, met on Friday with United States (US) President Donald Trump as the company suffered a rough week on Wall Street over competition with China and the threat of tariffs on semiconductors. Trump said he would be putting tariffs on imports of computer chips to the US, which will punish Nvidia's business that depends on imported components, mainly from Taiwan. "It was a good meeting, but eventually we're going to put tariffs on chips," Trump told reporters afterwards. High-end versions of Nvidia's chips face US export restrictions to the major market of China, part of Washington's efforts to slow its Asian adversary's advancement in the strategic technology. That policy came under scrutiny this week when Chinese startup DeepSeek achieved widespread adoption of its latest AI model that was developed without access to Nvidia's export-blocked H100 chips. After the DeepSeek breakthrough, US media reported the Trump administration was exploring ways to expand the restrictions to Nvidia's lower end chips. The DeepSeek model triggered a plunge in Nvidia's stock on Monday, wiping out nearly USD600 billion in market value - Wall Street's largest single-day loss ever. "We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy," an Nvidia spokesperson said. "Jensen and the president discussed the importance of strengthening US technology and AI leadership." Huang, whose company has become one of the world's most valuable firms on the back of the AI frenzy, was notably absent from Trump's January 20 inauguration. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who is a close advisor and major Trump donor, were given a central place during ceremonies and events, and contributed to the president's inauguration fund.

NVIDIA could experience more China GPU export restrictions from the Trump administration

The Trump administration is looking at increased sanctions on the sale of NVIDIA AI chips to China, according to "people familiar with the matter" in a new report from Bloomberg. US officials are looking to expand restrictions to cover NVIDIA's H20 AI GPUs, which can be used to develop and run AI software and services, acting as a scaled-down AI GPU that was designed to meet US export restrictions, and allowed onto the shores of China. Bloomberg reports that the "people added that a decision on any restrictions is likely a long ways off, given that the Trump administration is only beginning to staff up in relevant departments. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, Trump's pick to lead the agency that oversees chip trade curbs, said during a confirmation hearing Wednesday that he would be "very strong" on semiconductor controls, without providing more specifics". An NVIDIA spokesperson said in a statement that the company is "is ready to work with the administration as it pursues its own approach to AI". NVIDIA's tweaked H20 AI GPU is a cut-down version of the H100, with 96GB of HBM3 memory with up to 4.0TB/sec of memory bandwidth. There are 296 TFLOPs of compute power, and the H100 AI GPU die with a performance density of 2.9 TFLOPs/die, compared to the 19.4 TFLOPs/die of the regular H100 AI GPU.