Korean Media: Trump Reverses His Statement on "NVIDIA Chips Limited to the US" Within a Day

US President Trump publicly declared that "NVIDIA's most advanced artificial intelligence chips will not be given to any country other than the United States." However, the next day after Trump made this statement, it was reported that 60,000 of NVIDIA's advanced chips had been approved for export to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). This clearly reflects the contradictory mindset of the Trump administration, which wants to use advanced AI semiconductors as a unique weapon while also wanting to make money for domestic companies.

On the local time of the 2nd, CBS broadcast an interview with President Trump on "60 Minutes." When asked by a reporter if he would allow NVIDIA to export its most advanced chips to China, Trump firmly replied "no." He stated, "I will let China negotiate with NVIDIA, but the most advanced chips are an exception," "the most advanced chips cannot be owned by any country other than the United States." The interview was conducted on the 31st of last month, the day after the US-China summit.

NVIDIA had been exporting low-performance graphics processors (GPUs) to China since the previous Biden administration, but the export path was blocked after the current Trump administration came into power. In this context, President Trump made the explosive declaration that "no country outside the US will be given the most advanced chips."

The Wall Street Journal reported on the 3rd that President Trump had intended to address the issue of importing NVIDIA chip licenses during the US-China meeting, but changed his mind at the last moment. According to the report, although the president was willing to approve the export at the request of Huang Renxun, CEO of NVIDIA, he gave up due to the opposition from close advisors such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. This indicates that even though the CEO is a "close friend" of the president, the "hawks" still dominate the government's stance on semiconductor transactions with China.

However, Microsoft announced on the 3rd in its official blog that "it has obtained an export license from the US Department of Commerce for GPUs including 64,000 GB300s to the UAE." GB300 is the latest and most advanced GPU based on the Blackwell architecture. Microsoft explained that "our company is the first enterprise to obtain an export license for GPUs to the UAE under the Trump administration." Since Microsoft announced its plan to invest 15.2 billion USD in building cutting-edge AI data centers in the UAE by 2029 in 2023, the related plans have been continuously progressing. On that day, NVIDIA's stock price rose by 2.17% due to expectations of expanded exports to the Middle East.

In the CBS interview, the meaning of "most advanced chips" mentioned by President Trump was vague. This is because the chip product series using the latest design architecture Blackwell is diverse, ranging from AI accelerators to graphics cards, and chips are often redesigned. The top-tier and latest GPUs have been prioritized by American companies such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft. The "260,000 Blackwell GPUs" secured by South Korea also include this product series evenly, but the specific ratio has not yet been determined.

The industry generally believes that "it is unrealistic not to sell advanced GPUs to countries outside the US." As a design company, NVIDIA closely collaborates with memory companies in South Korea, manufacturers in Taiwan, materials and equipment in Japan and Europe.

On the other hand, the shares of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics fell by 5.48% and 5.58% respectively compared to the previous day, closing at 586,000 won and 104,900 won. This seems to be profit-taking selling after the shares surged by 10.91% and 3.35% the previous day. On that day, the Korean Exchange announced, "due to the possibility of SK Hynix being designated as an investment warning project, it will be designated as an investment attention project from the 4th."

Source: JoongAng Daily

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847939972130828/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.