US President Donald Trump has indicated he intends to impose tight restrictions on the export of Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence chips, stating they will be reserved exclusively for American companies. The comments, made during a taped interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes and to reporters aboard Air Force One, suggest a potential tightening of controls beyond previously outlined measures.
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Trump stated that only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, currently the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
“The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the US,” Trump told CBS, adding later: “We don’t give [the Blackwell] chip to other people.”
The remarks suggest a strong intent to bar China and potentially the rest of the world from accessing the most sophisticated semiconductors crucial for developing next-generation AI.
The President’s position creates uncertainty, particularly after his administration had sought to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, aiming to preserve the American edge in critical technology.
Just last Friday, Nvidia confirmed plans to supply more than 260,000 Blackwell AI chips to South Korea and some of the country’s biggest businesses, including Samsung Electronics. While Trump’s comments did not explicitly include allies in the ban, they centred on reserving the most advanced version for domestic use.
Regarding China, Trump did not rule out the possibility of the country obtaining a less capable version of the chip. “We will let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced,” he said.
This possibility of any Blackwell version reaching Chinese firms has drawn fierce criticism from China hawks in Washington, who fear the technology could dramatically accelerate China’s military capabilities and AI development. Republican congressman John Moolenaar, chairman of the house select committee on China, starkly warned that such a move “would be akin to giving Iran weapons-grade uranium.”
Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently indicated that the company has not sought US export licenses for the Chinese market due to Beijing’s current stance. Huang stressed the company’s need for access to China to fund US-based research and development, despite the obstacles.
