Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI giant Anthropic, strongly opposes the United States’ decision to permit the sale of advanced AI chips to China, calling the move a serious national security mistake.
Bloomberg reports that Dario Amodei, Chief Executive Officer of Anthropic, delivered sharp criticism of recent United States policy changes that would allow the sale of sophisticated AI chips to China. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Amodei characterized the decision as having significant national security ramifications and warned against proceeding with such sales.
In an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Amodei stated that permitting these chip sales would constitute a major error in judgment. “It would be a big mistake to ship these chips. I think this is crazy. It’s a bit like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.”
The controversy stems from recent policy shifts under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has moved to ease restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China. This represents a substantial departure from previous policy approaches designed to prevent China and its military from accessing American technology for AI development purposes. The policy change marks a significant victory for Nvidia, which has argued that maintaining the export ban would simply drive China to develop domestic alternatives to American chips.
The H200 processor, which was introduced more than two years ago, would become the most advanced AI chip legally available for export to Chinese customers under the new policy framework. Nvidia continues to sell its more sophisticated Blackwell generation chips within the United States and is currently preparing to transition to an even faster chip family named after astronomer Vera Rubin. Sales of these more advanced processors will continue to face restrictions based on national security considerations.
Nvidia is not alone in seeking access to the Chinese market. AMD, a competing chipmaker in the AI processor space, is also pursuing clearance to sell its MI325X chip in China. The potential market opportunity in China represents substantial revenue possibilities for American semiconductor companies.
According to Amodei’s assessment, China currently lags behind in artificial intelligence development, with the chip embargo serving as a significant constraint on its progress. However, his position is that maintaining these restrictions serves critical national security interests that outweigh commercial considerations.
This is not the first time Amodei has publicly advocated for maintaining chip export restrictions on China. He has previously urged the Trump administration to preserve these limitations. During last year’s Davos gathering, he expressed concerns about potential dystopian outcomes, making reference to scenarios from George Orwell’s novel about totalitarianism, specifically mentioning worries about situations resembling or exceeding those depicted in the 1984 narrative.
The debate over AI chip exports to China touches on fundamental tensions in American technology policy. On one side, technology companies argue that export restrictions will prove ineffective in the long term, as they will simply incentivize China to develop independent capabilities. This perspective holds that American companies should be allowed to compete in the Chinese market while they maintain a technological advantage. On the other side, national security experts and some industry leaders like Amodei contend that providing advanced AI capabilities to a strategic competitor poses unacceptable risks.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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