Lawmakers Ask for BIS Licensing Info, Documents for Nvidia-China Chip Exports
The top Democrats on the oversight committees for the Bureau of Industry and Security are asking the agency for information about the Trump administration's plan to approve Nvidia H200 chip exports to China, including license applications, supporting documents and more.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said they’re concerned export approvals of the H200s follow a “troubling pattern that undercuts our nation’s security.”
Before Trump earlier this month said he would allow sales of the H200 AI chips to certain “approved customers” in China (see 2512080059), the administration approved the exports of “tens of thousands” of advanced AI chips to the United Arab Emirates (see 2511190068), the lawmakers said, “despite significant concerns about these countries’ human rights records and their close relationships with” China.
Approving H200 exports “would be deeply at odds with the policy that Congress articulated” in the Export Control Reform Act, they said in a Dec. 22 letter to BIS Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler.
The two lawmakers are asking BIS to provide “all license information, including applications, supporting documentation, and BIS conditions for approval for the export” of the H200 chips or equivalent chips that are set to be exported to a nation in Country Group D or Macau, including China. They also asked for any “text of a government-to-government agreement” that the Trump administration has signed with another country “that would allow the shipment of an advanced” chip or a product containing a chip classified under Export Control Classification Number 3A090.
BIS also should provide its “assessment of the performance of the most advanced chips the [People’s Republic of China] is producing indigenously, as well as how many chips the PRC has the capacity to produce,” the letter said.
The lawmakers asked for responses by Jan. 12 and that BIS also provide them with any new H200-related license applications that the agency receives after that date. “Further, we request that you provide any approved licenses and all relevant information to those approvals within 48 hours of the license approval date,” the letter said.
They also asked for a briefing on the issue before BIS approved any H200 chip license applications for export to China. “That briefing should include an assessment of the military potential of the chips approved for export and the reaction of allies and partners to the decision to export these chips,” they said.
A BIS spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both Democrats and Republicans have asked the administration to explain its decision to approve exports of the Nvidia chips to China, including how BIS will ensure “restricted end users,” such as entities linked to China’s military, don't get to use the semiconductors (see 2512160039, 2512110064 and 2512150037).