Won’t share Nvidia’s Blackwell chips with China, other countries: President Donald Trump

Won’t share Nvidia’s Blackwell chips with China, other countries: President Donald Trump

The world's most valuable company by market capitalization, had recently suggested supplying these to South Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that only U.S. customers will have access to artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell chips. These will be kept away from China and other countries.

The message was conveyed on a taped interview, aired on Sunday on CBS ‘60 Minutes’ program and in comments to the media aboard Air Force One.

He told CBS, "The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States."

During the flight, while returning to Washington from a weekend in Florida, President Trump said, "We don't give the Blackwell chip to other people." Thus, he might impose tighter restrictions on cutting-edge American AI chips. China, and potentially the rest of the world, would be barred from accessing the most sophisticated semiconductors.

A few months ago, the Trump administration released an AI blueprint to relax environmental rules and expand AI exports to allies for maintaining America’s edge over China in the technology sphere.

Recently, Nvidia, the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, said it would supply more than 260,000 Blackwell AI chips to South Korea and some of the country's biggest businesses, including Samsung Electronics.

Earlier, speculations were rife on whether President Trump would allow shipments of a scaled-down version of Blackwell chips to China since August, when he suggested he might allow the sales. However, he has not ruled out a path for the country to obtain a less capable version of the chip. "We will let them deal with Nvidia, but not in terms of the most advanced," he added.

The move has been criticized by Chinese firms, even as Chinese officials in Washington feared the technology would supercharge its military capabilities and accelerate its AI development

Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, remarked, "It would be akin to giving Iran weapons-grade uranium."

President Trump had recently hinted he might discuss the chips with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their summit in South Korea. But the topic was not raised.

Meanwhile, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has said that the firm has sought U.S. export licenses for the Chinese market because of Beijing's stance on the company.

During a developers event, he added needing access to China to fund U.S.-based research and development. "They've made it very clear that they don't want Nvidia to be there right now.”