Senate Democrats are asking President Donald Trump to rethink his reported decision to allow top semiconductor chip producers in the United States to sell their products to China in exchange fees to the government.
A letter from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Christopher Coons, D-Del., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent to the president on August 15 follows statements from Trump where he said he negotiated with China to sell the country semiconductors.
That deal would have American semiconductor manufacturers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia to sell chips necessary for artificial intelligence if they pay a 15 percent fee, a move which Democrats said, “blatantly violates the purpose of export control laws.”
“Our national security and military readiness relies upon American innovators inventing and producing the best technology in the world, and in maintaining that qualitative advantage in sensitive domains,” wrote the senators.
“The United States has historically been successful in maintaining and building that advantage because of, in part, our ability to deny adversaries access to those technologies,” they continued. “The willingness displayed in this arrangement to ‘negotiate’ away America’s competitive edge … is cause for serious alarm.”
Lawmakers asked that the Trump administration provide answers by August 22 on which specific companies negotiated the 15 percent rate, and which companies may be eligible for the deal in the future, what laws and factors were considered in those talks, and who determined whether that arrangement was compliant with statutes and international obligations.
The letter also requests details about how the fees will be collected and what those fees will be used for.
“We again urge your Administration to quickly reverse course and abandon this reckless plan to trade away U.S. technology leadership,” the letter states.
NVIDIA’s H20 and AMD’s MI308 chips were placed under export bans in April by the Trump administration, who noted at the time that the export of those chips increased the risk of aiding China’s growing military capabilities.
Despite the apparent okaying of chip exports to China, a report from Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter said that China has told companies to refrain from using NVIDIA’s H20 chips.
China’s growing AI capabilities have been a concern for both Republicans and Democrats, who have warned against chip exports.