Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has publicly attacked US policies on supplying AI chips to China, saying that allowing the sale of Nvidia’s H200 is a dangerous precedent, even though it’s not the company’s newest accelerator.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has publicly attacked US policies on supplying AI chips to China, saying that allowing the sale of Nvidia’s H200 is a dangerous precedent, even though it’s not the company’s newest accelerator.
According to TechSpot, Amodei called the move «crazy» in an interview with Bloomberg TV and compared it to «selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.» His argument is simple: The H200, while not Nvidia’s latest generation, is still significantly superior to what China can legally obtain, and therefore has the potential to accelerate the development of powerful models and infrastructure in a country that Washington considers a strategic rival.
The information was prompted by the Trump administration’s move: last week, the US formalized a 25% duty on H200 shipments to China, as well as on AMD MI325X chips of similar purpose. In fact, this is a compromise model of «exports are allowed, but more expensive», which creates additional budget revenues, instead of a complete blockade of supplies.
At the same time, it is not a fact that these deliveries will reach the market quickly: the material mentions reports that Chinese customs officers are allegedly delaying the import of H200, and local companies are advised to purchase such chips only in case of extreme need.
The conflict between Anthropic and Nvidia has been going on for several years. Anthropic has supported tighter export restrictions and increased controls due to the risks of smuggling, while Nvidia has publicly ridiculed arguments about «exotic» schemes for illegal import. The dispute has also intensified against the backdrop of Amodei’s statements about the possible mass displacement of office «junks» by AI, to which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang responded with criticism and hints of regulatory lobbying.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how, against the backdrop of the high-profile news about Trump’s permission to export Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, another message appeared from the US Department of Justice about two Chinese people who had been smuggling H100 and H200 since 2023.
