Chip sales to China part of US plan to build its own digital silk road: official

A senior Trump administration official has defended exports of advanced chips to China, arguing that the US was building its own “digital silk road” to counteract concerns that Washington was eroding the competitiveness of top US models.

“Every minute that Chinese developers spend building on top of the American AI stack is time they’re not spending building on top of the Chinese stack,” US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told the audience of tech executives, investors and policymakers.

Addressing concerns that such exports to China would erode the competitiveness of the most advanced American chips, he said: “that is exactly why the US government has strategically pursued an approach where we have made partnerships in the Gulf that are essentially our equivalent of a digital silk road”.

Helberg was referencing Beijing’s drive to promote critical digital infrastructure around the world as part of the Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure programme.

Last November, the Trump administration approved exports of Nvidia’s advanced chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, months after announcing multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure partnerships with both countries as part of an effort to counter China’s reach in the region.