Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said Friday he suspects administration officials relied on the word of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang that nothing improper was happening with chip sales to China, even as concerns circulated inside the administration about the deals.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Cramer said he has never personally been briefed on the matter, though he noted other committees may have been. “Clearly, people within the administration were, from the timeline that we’ve seen and the points that you’re making right now, that are quite public, about Secretary Rubio’s concerns, the intelligence community’s concerns, and I suspect that people were just taking Mr. Huang’s word for it that there was nothing nefarious going on,” Cramer said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that there was a prohibition on it.”
Cramer added that the president has flexibility to set policy in this area, but said a key open question is whether the secretary of Commerce acted against the president’s wishes. “They’re going to have to flesh that out,” he said.
“They’re nowhere near our capability with AI chips. And to give them that advantage, at our cost, at our expense … it’s just so galling to me, and I’m surprised it took this long for more — for people to step up.”
Cramer said he and fellow committee members had been warning for more than a year about the risks of chip sales to China. He acknowledged China has closed the gap with the U.S. in some technology areas, and in a few may have even pulled ahead, but said it remains far behind on AI chips specifically. He said the sales have made some people wealthy while coming “at our national security detriment.”
