Nvidia is planning to open a new research and development facility in Shanghai, China, which has raised concerns from US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks. They argue that this move could facilitate China's access to advanced AI technologies and compromise US national security. The Senators criticize Nvidia for allegedly disregarding national security in favor of business interests. However, Nvidia claims that the facility is merely a new office for existing employees, emphasizing that their core operations and intellectual property will remain unchanged.
"No American company should be helping the Chinese Communist Party close the AI gap," Banks said in a statement. "NVIDIA was built by American innovation and taxpayer-funded research, not by empowering our adversaries."
Warren and Banks are skeptical, claiming that Nvidia's core intellectual property 'exists primarily as knowledge and digital designs' that would be easy to transfer to Chinese experts without physical evidence or an export."
A Nvidia spokesperson told The Register that, rather than being a new facility that would result in advanced chip designs ending up in Chinese hands, the biz is 'simply leasing a new space for existing employees, who need the room in the post-Covid return to work.'
According to the letter, plans for the R&D facility are just the latest example of Nvidia cozying up to China, which the pair said 'demonstrates a disregard for US national security and support for autocratic regimes.'
Collection
[
|
...
]