Chairman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on China has expressed concerns regarding the resumption of sales of H20 equivalent graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. In a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Moolenaar called for a briefing on how the Department will manage potential export license applications for Nvidia’s H20 GPUs. These advanced AI processors were previously banned from sale to China.
The H20 GPU, designed specifically for the Chinese market, is noted for its superior performance in high-bandwidth memory, crucial for AI inference. The Select Committee's April 2025 DeepSeek report highlighted these chips' role in advancing China's flagship reasoning model, R1.
The ban on H20 exports was implemented following the release of the Committee’s report, which detailed the chip's contribution to developing advanced AI models by Chinese firms like DeepSeek. Moolenaar's letter raises concerns that reversing this decision could enhance the People's Liberation Army's AI capabilities and aid Chinese companies in dominating the global AI model market.
“The Commerce Department made the right call in banning the H20. Now it must hold the line,” Moolenaar stated. “We can’t let the CCP use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.”
The letter points out evidence that Chinese tech giants such as Tencent have used H20s to train extensive AI systems on computing clusters classified as “supercomputers” under U.S. law—raising issues about potential violations of the Supercomputer End Use Rule. Moolenaar also argues against comparisons between the H20 and top-tier U.S. chips, emphasizing that such comparisons overlook strategic threats.
“The relevant comparison is not between the H20 and other chips available in the U.S. market, but between the H20 and chips domestically available at a relevant scale in the Chinese market,” he wrote. “The H20...far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development.”
To address policy gaps, Moolenaar suggests adopting a “floating technical benchmark” just above China's current chip capability—ensuring controls adapt as Beijing progresses. This approach aims to maintain engagement with China while preventing significant contributions to its advancements in advanced AI.
“If the U.S. is serious about leading in AI, we need to protect our advantage—not hand it over,” Moolenaar added. “The world must adopt American AI—not Chinese models trained with American technology.”
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