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Democrats in Congress are expressing concern about the fact that the United States may soon begin selling cutting-edge chips to one of its biggest geopolitical adversaries.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote a letter to Undersecretary of Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler on Monday, demanding answers about why the Trump administration greenlighted the sale of the H200 chip to China.
“The President directing you to approve H200 authorizations falls within a deeply disturbing pattern that undermines the security of our country,” the two Democrats wrote.
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U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, Democrat of New York, at a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on February 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty)
Meeks said the basis for his request is in the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA), a 2018 law that governs the federal government’s authority over technology-related exports. ECRA states that the Commerce Department must provide Congress with answers to concerns raised by the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees.
“In ECRA, Congress stated that it is the policy of the United States to restrict the export of items that would make a significant contribution to the military potential of any other nation,” Meeks wrote.
“Approving licenses for items like the NVIDIA H200 chips, which the Department of Justice recently described as ‘an integral part of modern military applications,’ would be deeply inconsistent with the policy Congress articulated in ECRA.”
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NVIDIA’s powerful H100 GPU is heading to space aboard Starcloud-1 to test AI data processing in orbit. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The H200 chip, one of the world’s most advanced computing devices, is NVIDIA’s best chip. It plays a key role in the processing needed for increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence.
The company was first ordered to halt sales to China in 2022 under the Biden administration.
“the [government] The company said the new licensing requirements will address the risk that products covered by “military end-use” or “military end-user” will be used or diverted to “military end-use” in China. In filing.
Like Meeks, many lawmakers worry that allowing these devices to be sold to China will only further empower an adversary that has no qualms about using the technology as a weapon. In recent years, Congress has banned the use of Chinese-made Huawei devices by government employees, and last year, passed a law forcing the divestment of TikTok, fearing China’s long-range vision through data collected by the popular social media app.
For Meeks, the decision to resume sales of the H200 chip – to China and other potential competitors – seems out of proportion to this previous caution.
“Just last month, you agreed to export tens of thousands of advanced AI chips, worth an estimated $1 billion, to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, despite significant concerns about these countries’ human rights records and their close ties to the United States. [People’s Republic of China]”Meeks wrote.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren and progressives oppose what they see as Nvidia’s outsized influence in the AI chip market. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
While some Republicans share Meeks’ reluctance, others said the Trump administration’s retreat fits into a larger plan to ensure American competitiveness in the years ahead.
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Meeks and Warren requested answers from the administration about the factors that led to the decision by January 12, 2026.