NVIDIA Poses National Security Risks with Shanghai Operations

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some lawmakers in D.C., including an Indiana senator, believe Nvidia is too close with China.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that more chip plants are set to be in the United States, but the major chip maker will also continue its longstanding China-based operations with their planned R&D facility based in Shanghai. That caught the attention of Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind.

“No American company should be helping the Chinese Communist Party ‘close the AI gap,'” Banks said in a letter written to Huang. “NVIDIA was built by American innovation and taxpayer-funded research, not by empowering our adversaries.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, also contributed to the letter. Both senators expressed their national security concerns of the Shanghai facility.

“The company needs to answer questions about whether it is prioritizing its bottom line by chasing business in China at the expense of American leadership, security, and prosperity,” said Sen. Warren.

The senators are hoping to get answers from NVIDIA by June 20. They’ve also encouraged the company to suspend any activities that could empower the Chinese Communist Party.

“NVIDIA’s innovations in accelerated computing have powered America’s global leadership at the frontier of artificial intelligence (AI), and NVIDIA dominates globally in the sale of chips for AI data centers,” the letter added. “Given this leading position as an American company, NVIDIA has a responsibility to consider the significant national security implications of the use and misuse of its products.”

Huang told reporters at a recent press conference that they have worked in China for a long time and have had a presence in Shanghai for over a decade now.

“We’ve been in China for 30 years,” said Huang. “The Shanghai site has been there for a decade and a half.”

Nonetheless, Huang has said he’s happy that President Donald Trump is committed to onshore manufacturing in the U.S.