‘I’m Concerned’: Republican Senator Breaks With Trump Sending NVIDIA Chips to China

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) broke with President Donald Trump’s decision to send high-powered NVIDIA chips to China as part of an effort to push it to reopen its soybean and other markets to American farmers.

“What was your reaction to the administration’s decision to allow the sale of the NVIDIA chips, the H200 chips, this week?” journalist Matthew Continetti asked the close Trump ally at the Aspen Institute this week. The U.S. traditionally banned the sale of advanced technology to China and other adversarial countries that can use it for military purposes.

“I’m concerned. I’m not clear on why that is the right path for us. I want to be convinced because I keep asking the question. The argument is, as I understand it—and I think Jensen [Huang]’s done a remarkable job, and I’ve talked to him about this a number of times—the argument is that this will somehow slow China’s capacity to develop its own capability by giving them the most advanced chips,” McCormick replied, adding:

I don’t think that’s been the experience. I think you can count on China to be doing everything in its power to develop its own independent capacity, and that America’s position should be, in my opinion, doing everything we can to maintain a lead. So it appears to me that by exporting those chips, it’s not clear to me how that would in any way slow their advances, and it seems more likely that it would accelerate them. So for that reason, I’ve joined two pieces—as an original co-sponsor—two pieces of legislation: the GAIN AI Act with Senator Banks and Senator Warren, and the SAFE Chips Act with Senator Ricketts and Senator Coons, both of which put brakes on that. And, you know, so I’m interested in hearing more, but at this point I don’t see the case, and I certainly see the need to maintain leadership, and I want to do everything I can to make sure America remains at the forefront of this important battle.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.