US senators issue warning to Nvidia CEO about his China trip

A group of US senators sent a letter to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, cautioning him against holding meetings with companies that are suspected of undermining US chip export controls during his upcoming trip to China.

In a letter from Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, Huang was warned not to meet with those with ties to the People's Republic of China's military and intelligence bodies during his trip on Friday.

The senators also requested that he avoid meetings with entities named on the US restricted export list.

“We are worried that your trip to the PRC could legitimize companies that cooperate closely with the Chinese military or involve discussing exploitable gaps in US export controls,” the senators wrote.

“We request that you refrain from meeting with representatives of any companies that are working with the PRC’s military or intelligence establishment, are named on the Entity List, or are suspected to have engaged in activities that undermine export controls."

In the letter, they also added that there is a consensus on the strategic importance of the hardware powering advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

“There is a new bipartisan consensus that the hardware powering advanced AI, which includes NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), is of immense strategic importance. If exported freely to the PRC, this hardware could accelerate the PRC’s effort to modernize its military.”

The senators listed several concerns, including the fact that Nvidia’s chips could potentially enable Chinese companies to develop and operate AI models that compete with American AI models and support Chinese military and intelligence activity.

They mentioned DeepSeek, which has allegedly been involved in chip smuggling and holds a stockpile of controlled US chips in violation of US law, Warren and Banks claim.

The senators concluded: “We hope you will agree that it would be deeply irresponsible for an American CEO to meet with companies that violate US law and are actively developing military capabilities that could undermine US national security."

The new US export rules require Nvidia to obtain licenses to sell its AI chip, in Washington's latest effort to limit China's access to advanced semiconductors. The ban reportedly came since Nvidia's most advanced chips could be used by China to build up its military capabilities.