Anthropic CEO says shipping advanced AI chips to China is like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea

«Selling these chips would be a huge mistake. I think it’s just insanity. It’s like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea,» Amodei said.

The ban was initially implemented to prevent American technology from falling into Beijing’s hands and the Chinese military, and to limit China’s strategic AI development. The policy change benefits Nvidia, which claims that controlled exports could reduce incentives for domestic alternatives in China.

The H200 debuted earlier and predates Nvidia’s newer architectures. The more modern Blackwell is a newer architecture with restricted export availability, and recently the company introduced the next-generation Rubin (Vera Rubin) platform. Their sales are restricted due to the same national security considerations.

Amodei added that the chip embargo has limited China’s access to some advanced hardware. China, however, does not permit the sale of foreign chips in its territory.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis estimates that Chinese models are «a matter of months» behind the Western frontier. According to him, the gap has narrowed substantially in recent years.