Global Dominance for U.S. AI Tech Stack is a National Security Goal (From Real America’s Voice)

U.S. chips are one to two years ahead of China.  In generative AI, the lead is more like six months, according to White House AI Czar David Sacks.

America wins the AI race through global market dominance.  On Dec. 8, President Donald J. Trump announced approval of NVIDIA chip sales to China. The chips, made in Taiwan, would first undergo security inspection in the U.S., while NVIDIA pays an import duty before completing the shipment to China.

The anchor team of Terrance Bates, David Brody, and Dr. Gina Loudon at Real America’s Voice American Sunrise dug into the back and forth as part of a foreign policy segment. 

Dr. Gina Loudoun: “The U.S. will allow export of H200 AI chips to China.  The move represents a major shift.  The H200 chips were previously barred under export controls.  White House calls it a balance between protecting national security and maintaining American leadership in AI. But critics warn it could boost China’s tech and military capabilities. How concerning is this?”

Rebecca Grant: I’m not concerned with this set of chips. This is Trump catching up after Biden’s policy, which was just to ban everything.  A big national security goal for the U.S. is to have the U.S. AI tech stack dominate chips, software, and cloud globally.  NVIDIA is selling at this point. These are the second, third, or fourth-best chips.  To dominate global tech, U.S. companies have to make sales.  And that includes China.  They are not getting the Blackwell.  So, this is not going to hurt our lead in AI, but it is going to give us more global market share, and that’s where we compete with China.

The American Sunrise discussion brought up a key aspect of policy on the AI race with China.  Sales and market share did not used to be integral to national security policy.  However, the AI race is one the U.S. government cannot win by itself.  Dominance in the tech stack depends on forward momentum by U.S. companies.  Sales drive market share. 

For example, NVIDIA’s strategy is to take market share from Huawei around the globe and inside China.  “If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered, and Huawei has got everybody else covered,” CEO Jensen Huang said in June.

But given China’s bid for internal resilience, the door may be closing.  Alibaba, Tencent, and numerous “start-ups” using China’s state money are angling to compete in the China chip market alongside Huawei.  “While this move reopens the door for U.S. revenue, the strategic train has already left the station,” Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC on Dec. 9.

Hence, the need for carefully considered international sales to prevent pushing partners into buying from China.  In November, the White House approved the sale of 35,000 advanced chips, including the Blackwell series, to Saudi Arabia’s Humain and the UAE’s G42.  The sale was valued at $1 billion.  “We rescinded that Biden diffusion rule, which…made diffusion a bad word. Diffusion of our technology should be a good word,” Sacks said. 

Full clip from RAV American Sunrise here.