Chairman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on China has expressed concerns over the resumption of sales of H20 equivalent graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. In a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Moolenaar requested a briefing on how potential export license applications for Nvidia’s H20 GPUs will be managed. These advanced AI processors were previously banned from sale to China.
The H20 GPU, designed for the Chinese market, is reported to outperform current Chinese mass-produced technology, particularly in high-bandwidth memory crucial for AI inference. The Select Committee’s April 2025 DeepSeek report highlighted that these chips were key in developing China’s reasoning model, R1.
Following the release of this report, an export ban was placed on H20 chips in April 2025 due to their role in advancing PRC firms’ AI models. Moolenaar raised concerns that reversing this ban could enhance the PLA’s AI capabilities and aid Chinese companies in gaining global market share.
“The Commerce Department made the right call in banning the H20. Now it must hold the line,” Moolenaar stated. “We can’t let the CCP use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.”
Moolenaar’s letter highlights evidence that PRC tech giants like Tencent have used H20s for training massive AI systems on computing clusters qualifying as “supercomputers” under U.S. law, raising possible Supercomputer End Use Rule violations. He also cautioned against comparing H20 with top-tier U.S. chips as such comparisons overlook strategic threats.
“The relevant comparison is not between the H20 and other chips available in the U.S. market but between the H20 and chips domestically available at a relevant scale in the Chinese market,” he wrote. “The H20…far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development.”
To address policy gaps, Moolenaar recommended adopting a “floating technical benchmark” slightly above China’s current chip capabilities—ensuring controls evolve with Beijing’s advancements while engaging with China’s market without aiding its progress significantly.
“If the U.S. is serious about leading in AI, we need to protect our advantage—not hand it over,” he added. “The world must adopt American AI—not Chinese models trained with American technology.”
Read the full letter here.
