Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
The Trump administration is signaling a more open approach to letting China access U.S. tech as industry, labor groups and China hawks jockey for a new playbook.
Why it matters: There's an opportunity to influence U.S. export control policy after President Trump scrapped a global regime from his predecessor.
- The White House's AI action plan expected next week could potentially direct the Commerce Department to implement a much-anticipated new approach to export controls.
State of play: After NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump and lawmakers earlier this week, the company said it was able to secure licenses to export certain AI chips to China.
- The White House did not confirm licenses would be granted, but pointed to recent statements from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
- "We want to keep having the Chinese use the American technology stack because they still rely upon it. And that's key. So we try to play that balance," Lutnick said on CNBC Tuesday.
- "We don't sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. I think fourth best is where we have come out that we're cool."
A tech industry think tank is lauding the move.
- "Nvidia designed this chip specifically to comply with U.S. export controls. Blocking its sale despite that compliance sent the wrong signal to both U.S. companies and global markets," ITIF vice president Daniel Castro said.
Catch up quick: This isn't the first time NVIDIA seemed to be getting a break from tight export controls.
- In April, the Trump administration was expected to back off, but NVIDIA was still hit days later.
- Opponents still see an opportunity to get the Trump administration to go back to fully shutting advanced chips out of the Chinese market.
The other side: Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) has been circulating a white paper on the Hill that explains how NVIDIA's H20 chip is still among the best inference chips on the market and ideal for improving models like DeepSeek.
- The group is also planning to take this message to the White House.
- ARI president Brad Carson: "As we work to outcompete China, we are simultaneously solving China's biggest bottleneck on AI development. You can't say you're for winning the AI race with China and be in support of this."
On the Hill, China Select Committee Chair John Moolenaar said a bipartisan congressional investigation found that the H20 chip is powerful and he'll be seeking clarification from Commerce regarding NVIDIA's statement.
- "I strongly supported the Commerce Department's decision earlier this year to restrict exports of the H20 chip to China. It was a critical and meaningful step toward limiting the CCP's access to advanced compute—something the Select Committee has long prioritized," Moolenaar said.
- The committee has been pushing the CHIP Security Act, which would prevent advanced U.S. AI chips from reaching China.
What we're watching: The Trump administration says it's laser focused on protecting U.S. workers, but there could be a labor backlash to loosening export controls to China.
- "America's technological edge in AI is key to our ability to compete against China and maintain and grow jobs," said Michael Wessel, United Steelworkers union liaison for a group that advises administration officials.
- "There are real questions as to whether the NVIDIA export control decision will really advance our interests or China's and whether jobs are being traded away."
