The rare earth element appears to lie behind Nvidia’s attitude towards China.
After announcing plans to essentially withdraw from the Chinese market in June, the giant reversal course of semiconductor chips and AI said it has submitted an application to reopen H20 AI chip sales to China.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday that plans to begin selling H20 AI chips have been linked to ongoing trade debates with China, according to a report from Reuters. AMD plans to resume sales of its China MI308 AI chip.
Rare earth elements (REEs) such as lanthanum and cerium, which are mainly mined in China, are necessary elements in technology, including rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles. These leases have become a key point in the current trade debate between the US and China.
However, not everyone is happy with this trade development.
The decision “not only passes our foreign enemies to our most advanced technologies, but is dangerously inconsistent with the administration’s previously stated position on export control for China,” Reuters said in a statement.
However, Lutnick wasn’t worried and told CNBC on Tuesday that China is only getting Nvidia’s “fourth best” chip.
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“We don’t sell them our best, not the second best, not the third best,” Lutnick said in an interview.
The news comes less than a week after Nvidia was rumored to be designing and releasing new AI chips specifically to reopen domestic businesses without violating US chip export rules.
The US is still trying to figure out what AI chip export rules will look like. The Trump administration officially retracted the Biden administration’s AI proliferation rules in May, and has not been officially updated since.
The Trump administration was rumoured to consider further restrictions on the export of AI chips to countries such as Thailand and Malaysia to prevent smuggling, Bloomberg reported last week. Malaysia issued a trade permit on US-made AI chips on Monday.
TechCrunch contacted Nvidia for comment.
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