Latest news with #Moolenaar
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
US lawmaker warns against H20 chip sales to China, vows US dominance in global AI race
Chairman of Select Committee on the Chinese communist party (SCCCP) John Moolenaar (R-MI) gave a speech at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy discussing a crucial topic: ensuring the security of the technologies that will shape the upcoming century. "Semiconductors, AI, quantum computing aren't just economic assets. They're the backbone of national security, diplomacy, and global power," asserted Moolenaar, according to the release by SCCCP. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Science Healthcare healthcare Management MBA CXO Artificial Intelligence others PGDM Public Policy Technology Others Design Thinking Data Analytics MCA Cybersecurity Product Management Project Management Data Science Leadership Finance Operations Management Digital Marketing Degree Skills you'll gain: Strategic Data-Analysis, including Data Mining & Preparation Predictive Modeling & Advanced Clustering Techniques Machine Learning Concepts & Regression Analysis Cutting-edge applications of AI, like NLP & Generative AI Duration: 8 Months IIM Kozhikode Professional Certificate in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Starts on Jun 26, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Data Analysis & Interpretation Programming Proficiency Problem-Solving Skills Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Duration: 24 Months Vellore Institute of Technology VIT MSc in Data Science Starts on Aug 14, 2024 Get Details Moolenaar also expressed his disagreement with the recent choice to remove the prohibition on the sale of H20 chips to China.. "The decision to lift the ban was done for a reason I very much agree with. Selling H20s to China further extends U.S. technology as the global standard and provides valuable revenue for U.S. companies that will be used to invest in the next tech generation. However, these are not the only objectives we must achieve. The core objective of all U.S. export control restrictions to China is preventing the PLA from advancing their military capability, in this case AI, through U.S. technology," he continued, as quoted by SCCCP. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 32 Most Beautiful Women In The World Undo "The H20 is a stark improvement over what the Chinese can indigenously produce at scale. When, not if, these chips are diverted to a PLA supercomputer , they will substantially upgrade their ability to run advanced AI models. Additionally, the U.S. must dominate AI software as much as it does hardware. My committee's April 2025 report showed how DeepSeek was able to illegally use access to U.S. models to develop a comparable capability. It was done at a fraction of the price and U.S. chips including the H20 were critical. DeepSeek is now free to use, essentially giving away what took U.S. companies years of research and millions of dollars," Moolenaar said. "If we are to win the AI race, we must be the global standard for both AI hardware and software while ensuring the U.S. military, not the PLA, has the advantage in AI", stated SCCCP release. Concluding the speech, the Chairman said, "We will not allow China to use American chips to build the arsenal of authoritarianism. But we will ensure the world runs on American AI. That is the dual mission and how the United States will win the global AI future", SCCCP release noted. Live Events
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Top Republican on China panel objects to resumption of Nvidia H20 chip shipments
By Karen Freifeld WASHINGTON: The head of a House of Representatives panel on China told U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that resuming sales of Nvidia 's H20 chips to China threatens to advance Beijing's AI capability, stepping up his criticism of the decision and saying the original ban was "the right call." Republican Representative John Moolenaar , in a letter to Lutnick on Friday, warned the chips could undermine the U.S.' AI advantage and may help Chinese companies capture global AI model market share. "The Commerce Department made the right call in banning the H20," Moolenaar said in the letter, demanding more information. "We can't let the (Chinese Communist Party) use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation ." Nvidia's announcement this week that it would be allowed to resume sales reversed an export restriction imposed by the Trump administration in April to keep advanced AI chips such as the H20 out of Chinese hands over national security concerns, an issue that has found rare bipartisan support. It drew swift questions and criticism from U.S. legislators, including Moolenaar, who said on Monday that he would seek "clarification" from the Commerce Department. Shares of Nvidia turned negative on Friday after Moolenaar came out with the stronger criticism. An Nvidia spokesperson later defended the U.S.' relaxation of restrictions, saying America wins when the world builds on U.S. technology. "The government made the best decision for America, promoting U.S. technology leadership, economic growth and national security," the spokesperson said in a statement. A representative of the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter was an unusual example of public disagreement with a Trump administration policy from a fellow Republican, signaling the depth of the national security concerns around the AI chip's export to China among China hawks in Washington. On Tuesday, Lutnick said the planned resumption of sales of the H20 chip was part of U.S. negotiations on rare earths and magnets. It also was a sign the United States was relaxing restrictions on the export of AI technology to China. Nvidia designed the H20 chip for the Chinese market after the Biden administration restricted exports of other of its advanced chips to China. But the H20 is still competitive at inference, where AI models serve up answers to users, which is fast becoming the biggest part of the AI chip market. Its capabilities also could be used in supercomputers. According to an April 2025 report by the Select Committee on China, Nvidia's H20 chips were instrumental in enabling an AI model by Chinese company DeepSeek that surprised the world earlier this year. Tech companies like China's Tencent also have used H20s to train massive AI systems, according to Moolenaar, who said there was growing evidence H20 chips are being used by Chinese AI companies to build supercomputers. Under the policy change, the U.S. still must approve licenses for the export of H20 chips. But Nvidia said it had been assured licenses would be granted, and it hoped to start deliveries soon. In his letter to Lutnick, Moolenaar requested a briefing as soon as possible, but no later than August 8, on how the Department of Commerce plans to evaluate license applications for the H20 and similar chips, the estimated number of H20s to be exported and to whom. "The H20 significantly outperforms anything Chinese chipmakers like Huawei can currently produce" at scale, Moolenaar wrote, "and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China's AI development."
The Hill
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Top Republican on House China panel questions reversal of Nvidia chip curbs
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is pushing back on the Trump administration's decision to allow technology company Nvidia to sell certain artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China once again. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday, the congressman raised concerns about the reversal on Nvidia's H20 chips, suggesting it could boost China's AI capabilities. 'The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China's indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China's AI development,' Moolenaar wrote. Nvidia announced Monday that the chipmaker is filing out applications to sell its H20 chips again after receiving assurances from the Trump administration that its licenses would be granted. The chipmaker revealed earlier this year that the U.S. government was implementing new licensing requirements that would limit its ability to sell the chips in China. The reversal came shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with President Trump. Lutnick suggested the Trump administration opted to ease the restrictions as part of a broader rare earth deal with China, underscoring that Beijing is only getting Nvidia's 'fourth best' chip. However, Moolenaar argued the key issue is how the H20 chip compares to those being developed in China and proposed the Commerce Department peg its export controls to a 'slight technical improvement' on China's current capabilities. 'As the Trump administration has repeatedly stated, the U.S. must ensure that American rather than Chinese tech companies build the global AI infrastructure,' he added. 'At the same time, however, we must also ensure that the world does not adopt Chinese AI models trained on U.S. technology.' 'Approving the sale of large volumes of H20s could give China the computer power it needs to develop powerful AI models that are open to users free of charge as DeepSeek has done with R1,' Moolenaar continued. 'As China has done in so many other industries, this is a deliberate strategy to capture market share and become the global standard.'
Business Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
US House China panel faults Trump's move to ease Nvidia AI chip sales
[WASHINGTON] The Trump administration's decision allowing Nvidia to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China risks bolstering Beijing's military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US in AI, according to the head of the US House Select Committee on China. 'The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China's indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China's AI development,' chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday (Jul 18) in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose agency oversees semiconductor export controls. 'We must not allow US companies to sell these vital artificial intelligence assets to Chinese entities.' Moolenaar's letter follows indications from the US that it will allow certain types of AI processors from Nvidia and rival Advanced Micro Devices back into China after restricting sales of those less-advanced components in April. Lutnick and other officials justified the step by saying Chinese companies could already get parts that are equivalent to or better than Nvidia's H20 – a scaled-down accelerator designed to abide by earlier US restrictions on leading-edge chips. Washington has yet to formally approve any H20 shipments, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, but the company expects those licences soon. It is still unclear what volume of sales the US plans to allow. Some Trump officials have privately protested the decision to permit any such exports, Bloomberg has reported. Moolenaar requested a briefing from the Commerce Department by Aug 8 to explain the rationale for the policy change. He also sought clarity on how the US will issue licences for the H20 and how many chips will ultimately be cleared for shipment to China. 'Approving the sale of large volumes of H20s could give China the compute power it needs to develop powerful AI models that are open to users free of charge as DeepSeek has done with R1,' Moolenaar said. 'As China has done in so many other industries, this is a deliberate strategy to capture market share and become the global standard.' BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Nvidia declined to comment. Officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have cast the policy shift on the H20 as part of an effort to secure access to rare-Earth minerals from China, a core US aim in ongoing trade negotiations, despite earlier assertions that allowing H20 exports was not up for discussion in those talks. China's Commerce Ministry said on Friday the US should abandon its 'zero-sum mindset' and scrap its 'unjustified' trade restrictions when commenting on Washington lifting the H20 chips ban. The ministry also suggested that the chip ban wasn't included in the recent negotiations. Bessent and Lutnick have also argued that Washington should keep China's AI development dependant on a US ecosystem, depriving Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies of the revenue and know-how that would come from a wider customer base in its home market. 'You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack,' Lutnick said on Tuesday on CNBC. The US effectively banned sales of advanced chips to China in 2022 and has several times tightened those controls, which also cover chip manufacturing equipment and target specific Chinese companies. Nvidia is still not allowed to ship to China its most advanced AI processors, which account for some 90 per cent of the market for that hardware. The H20 is widely sought after in China, in large part due to its memory bandwidth, which makes it particularly good for inference: the point at which AI models recognise patterns and draw conclusions. BLOOMBERG
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Top lawmaker sends letter to US Commerce Secretary objecting to Nvidia selling AI chips to China: ‘We can't let the…'
Republican representative John Moolenaar , who is the chairman of the House Select Committee on China, has reportedly objected to the US Commerce Department 's decision to allow Nvidia to resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China. In a letter to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Moolenaar warned that the move could advance China's AI capabilities and help Chinese companies gain market share in global AI model development. 'The Commerce Department made the right call in banning the H20. We can't let the (Chinese Communist Party) use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation,' stated Republican representative Moolenaar on Friday (July 18), as per news agency Reuters. Nvidia 'allowed' to resume sales of AI chips in China Earlier this week, Nvidia announced that the US government has permitted the chipmaker to restart H20 sales, reversing an export restriction imposed in April. The ban aimed to keep advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands due to national security concerns, a position that has typically seen rare bipartisan agreement in Congress. This reversal has quickly drawn criticism from some US legislators. China represents a significant revenue source for Nvidia, the world's most valuable company. Recently, Lutnick stated that the planned resumption of H20 chip sales was part of ongoing US negotiations concerning rare earths and magnets. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 11 Foods That Help In Healing Knee Pain Naturally Undo Recently, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back against US concerns saying that China doesn't need US-made chips and American stack to aid its military. He claimed that Chinese military 'don't need Nvidia's chips, certainly, or American tech stacks in order to build their military' because 'they simply can't rely on it' as US technology 'could be limited at any time; not to mention, there's plenty of computing capacity in China already.' His comments come just ahead of his trip to China for which he was sent a 'warning letter' by some US senators. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
