Group senators call President Donald Trump intends to maintain the US advantage in artificial intelligence development by denying China access to its most advanced chips and models. The bipartisan resolution introduced by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) came just days after Trump retracted his statement this suggests he will consider allowing Nvidia to sell its powerful Blackwell chip in China.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), calls attention to China's “efforts to close the AI gap and stay ahead” of the United States when it comes to developing and deploying advanced AI models. He adds that “China's inability to produce and access computing power is a major obstacle to its progress.” To maintain U.S. leadership, senators are calling on the government to encourage U.S. companies to continue offering allies “priority access” to their most advanced artificial intelligence chips, cloud infrastructure and models, while preventing China and other adversaries from obtaining the technology.
“We cannot allow China to get ahead of us and strengthen its military capabilities, maximize its cyberattacks against American industry, and jeopardize the long-term economic and national security of the United States,” Senator Coons said in a statement. “This bipartisan resolution sets us on the path to a different future—a future in which advanced artificial intelligence systems are built in the United States by American companies.”
Senators want the government to continue to enforce export controls that prevent U.S. chipmakers such as Nvidia from selling their most advanced chips to China, a policy that came under threat last month when Trump said he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the sale of the Nvidia Blackwell chip in the country.
