U.S. President Donald Trump said he would lock Nvidia's cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor, Blackwell, for exclusive use by U.S. corporations. He declared that he would not sell the top-spec chips to China or even to other allies. That runs counter to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's position that he would prioritize supplying 260,000 units of the latest chips, including Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs), to major domestic corporations.
According to Reuters on the 3rd (local time), President Trump disclosed a plan to control exports of Nvidia AI chips in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired the day before. He said, "I will not let anyone outside the United States have the most advanced (Blackwell chips)."
Trump repeated the same stance to reporters aboard Air Force One, the presidential jet, as he returned to Washington from Florida that day. He reaffirmed, "We are not giving (Blackwell) chips to other people."
Nvidia is effectively the corporation that monopolizes the global AI chip market today. Blackwell is the next-generation AI chip that Nvidia unveiled at the GTC conference in March this year. It is evaluated as the highest-performance chip to date, with far faster computing speed and energy efficiency than the previous flagship H100 (Hopper).
Trump's remarks mean the United States intends to block access to the most sophisticated semiconductor technology not only by China but potentially by other countries worldwide. That is a far stricter restriction than U.S. officials had previously suggested. Reuters analyzed that Trump's comments suggest U.S. policy around cutting-edge AI chips could be tightened further.
The remarks also contradict a policy the Trump administration released just four months ago. The White House released a new AI blueprint in July. The blueprint pledged to join forces with allies to curb China's technological rise. It mainly addressed easing environmental regulations and sharply expanding AI exports to allied countries.
If, as Trump indicated, supply of Blackwell chips to "countries outside the United States" is completely blocked, major disruptions will be inevitable for AI technology development plans in U.S. allies, including Korea. Reuters said, "President Trump did not clearly explain how his remarks could be reconciled with such supply plans for allies."