The Rupert Murdoch–owned Wall Street Journal has mocked a deal announced by Donald Trump that allows powerful artificial intelligence chips to be exported from the U.S. to China in return for a small cut of the revenue.
The paper’s editorial board questioned why the president approved a deal that will let Nvidia sell its H200 chip, one of the company’s most advanced AI processors, to a top U.S. adversary and economic rival in exchange for the Treasury receiving a 25 percent cut of the sales.
“The Indians struck a better deal when they sold Manhattan to the Dutch. Why would the president give away one of America’s chief technological advantages to an adversary and its chief economic competitor?” the board wrote. They were referring to the indigenous Lenape people giving up Manhattan Island in 1626 for a trivial consignment of goods and trinkets.
“Mr. Trump’s move to ease export controls on computer chips illustrates his confusing China policy, to the extent he has one. In the first term he changed America’s China debate as a trade and security hawk. Eight years later he’s sounding like the post–Cold War ‘globalists’ he denounces who thought the lure of commerce would make the world safer.”
Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China, although specific details such as the quantity or conditions of the sales remain unclear.
The move could trigger a major shift in the rapidly advancing AI industry, where the U.S. still surpasses China in terms of computing power.
The Journal’s board suggested that Beijing could become the leading AI superpower within the next 18 to 24 months, and that this rise could be accelerated now that Trump is allowing the powerful H200 chips to be exported “without strings.”
The board also notes that the Department of Justice has raised concerns about how China may use H200 chips. In a Monday press release announcingthe charges against a Chinese businessman accused of smuggling AI chips out of the U.S., the DOJ stated that such chips are “integral to modern military applications.”
“We sure hope Mr. Trump isn’t doing this for Nvidia’s 25 percent tax payments to the Treasury. The Constitution vests taxing power in Congress, yet Mr. Trump is essentially trading national security for pennies on the dollar,” the Journal’s board wrote.
“In August the administration let Nvidia sell its H20 chip to China, conditioned on Treasury getting a 15 percent cut. At least the administration then claimed China had agreed to ease rare-earth magnet controls in return—only for Beijing to ratchet up restrictions on rare-earth exports again in October before the Xi-Trump trade truce a few weeks later,” it added.
“What is Mr. Trump getting from Beijing now besides better mood music before his planned visit to China in the spring?”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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