Several Democratic senators on Dec. 9 opposed President Donald Trump’s approval of Nvidia H200 AI chips for Chinese customers in a joint statement, calling it a “national security failure.”

“The H200s are vastly more capable than anything China can make and gifting them to Beijing would squander America’s primary advantage in the AI race,” the senators stated, calling on Trump to reverse the policy.

Nvidia previously sold China reduced-capability versions of its Hopper-line AI chips, the H800 and H20 chips.

Trump announced via Truth Social on Dec. 8 that the United States would allow sales of the H200 chip to “approved customers” in China for the first time, blasting policies that required American companies to create “degraded” versions of their AI chips to satisfy U.S. export controls.

He stated that Nvidia’s more advanced Blackwell line and Rubin line slated for 2026 release would not be allowed for sale to China.

Chinese companies using artificial intelligence (AI) had been highly reliant on H20 chips, as Chinese chipmakers have not come close to producing comparable chips at scale, especially with restrictions placed on the chipmaking technology China can access. Chinese tech giants ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and DeepSeek all use H20 chips.

The U.S. senators opposing the move include Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). Six of the eight senators are ranking members on Senate committees tasked with national security-related duties.

“Access to these chips would give China’s military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure, and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector,” the senators stated.

They pointed to reports that China’s AI platform, DeepSeek, which has announced plans to use Chinese-made chips, has been impeded in remaining competitive in AI by a lack of access to U.S. chips. The senators said that allowing Chinese companies access to Nvidia H200 chips, which are more advanced than what they can currently legally purchase, would remove barriers to DeepSeek and other Chinese companies as they pursue AI capabilities.

“Senate Democrats and Republicans both know that the 21st century will be defined by whether the leading AI systems are built on values of free societies and free markets or the repressive, authoritarian values of the Chinese Communist Party,“ the senators stated. ”President Trump must reverse course and recommit to preserving American dominance in AI.”

U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have raised concerns about Chinese access to advanced U.S. AI and semiconductor technology, including Chinese efforts to gain access to these technologies through illicit means such as smuggling and falsifying records.

They have introduced several bills strengthening existing export controls and closing loopholes, aimed at preventing increased Chinese access to U.S.-produced AI chips. As recently as Dec. 4, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would codify existing controls that prevent the sale of Nvidia H200 chips to China.

The House Select Committee on the CCP also criticized the decision to allow Chinese companies to use H200 chips, in a statement on Dec. 9.

These chips are more advanced than what Chinese companies can currently produce, and “could help [China] catch up to America in total compute.”

“Publicly available analysis indicates that the H200 provides 32% more processing power and 50% more memory bandwidth than China’s best chip,” it stated on X. “The CCP will use these highly advanced chips to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance.”

The committee also warned Nvidia that in selling its AI chips to Chinese companies, they will “rip off its technology, mass produce it themselves, and seek to end Nvidia as a competitor.”