President Donald Trump declared Sunday that Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell AI chip will not be sold abroad, describing the technology as a decade ahead of global rivals and too valuable to share.
Aboard Air Force One en route to Washington from Florida, Trump told reporters the U.S. would keep the chip domestic.
“The new Blackwell that just came out, it’s 10 years ahead of every other chip,” he said. “But no, we don’t give that chip to other people.”
The Blackwell platform, launched this year, has drawn massive U.S. orders, but questions lingered over potential sales to China after Trump hinted in August at allowing a downgraded version.
Those prospects dimmed after last week’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, where Trump said the issue never surfaced.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted Friday that the company has not sought export licenses for China, citing Beijing’s stance. “They’ve made it very clear that they don’t want Nvidia to be there right now,” Huang said at a developers’ event .
The decision aligns with warnings from China hawks in Congress. Rep. John Moolenaar, who leads the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, argued that exporting such technology would be “akin to giving Iran weapons-grade uranium,” citing risks to the U.S. military edge.
Nvidia moved to offset the gap by announcing a deal to supply over 260,000 Blackwell chips to South Korea, including to Samsung Electronics . The move underscores Washington’s broader campaign to restrict AI technology transfers amid escalating tensions with Beijing.
Existing curbs already block Nvidia’s top-tier chips from China, pushing local firms to develop weaker alternatives. Trump’s firm stance signals deeper controls ahead, prioritizing national security over Nvidia’s international revenue streams. As AI competition intensifies, the policy could accelerate a global divide in cutting-edge computing power.
