Axios Live: U.S. race against China is "urgent" for key minerals and technology

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Policy and economic leaders said the U.S. must rapidly accelerate how it commands artificial intelligence, develops energy sources, and protects key manufacturing materials, at a Dec. 11 Axios Live event.

Why it matters: Access and control over those resources shape the United States' position in the geopolitical hierarchy, with China as a key competitor during a period of major foreign policy upheaval.

Axios' Mike Allen and Colin Demarest spoke with Jarrod Agen, deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council; USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton; and, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). The event was sponsored by JPMorganChase.

Case in point: China currently controls the market on crucial supplies necessary for magnets, Humpton said, adding that "our Air Force turns into paperweights without the magnets that support the rotating equipment inside those vehicles."

• "Permanent magnets and critical minerals are in nearly every aspect of our economy. and we don't have stockpiles."

Driving the news: President Trump recently announced on Truth Social that his administration will allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China — lifting a prior blockade.

What they're saying: Krishnamoorthi warned that the decision is surrendering a technological advantage the U.S. has over China right now.

• "Semiconductors, interestingly, are the main choke point for the [Chinese Communist Party]. … They still have not been able to come up with the world's leading chips."
• "I think that we are putting ourselves at risk by basically assisting the CCP with their military modernization and the perpetration of human rights abuses by selling these highest-end chips."

Agen emphasized the need to move quickly cross-industrially.

• "It's an urgency. It's throwing out the old playbook and completely rewriting how we tackle something like critical minerals, and [Trump] wants to do that on energy across the board."

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Douglas Petno, co-CEO of JPMorganChase's commercial and investment bank, said America faces "a strategic imperative to win the AI race," and that it's going to take time to compete effectively.

"The size and scale of our challenges [are] daunting, and the time to correct a lot of the challenges that we have in front of us is not an overnight fix."