US senators want to suspend Nvidia AI chip export licenses to China and its intermediaries — bipartisan letter to Commerce Dept says that Huang’s claims of no chip diversion ‘were contradicted by reporting available’

Jensen Huang.

U.S. Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have jointly written a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging him to take “immediate action” on the diversion of American AI chips to China. According to the Financial Times, the two legislators made the written statement after three Super Micro employees, including one of its co-founders, Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, have been charged with smuggling $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia hardware to China.

“We urge all necessary and appropriate actions, including the immediate pausing, suspension, or other reconsideration of all active export licenses covering advanced Nvidia AI chips and server systems destined for…China as well as intermediaries in south-east Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore,” the senators said in their correspondence to Lutnick. They also said they refuted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s claims of no evidence of chip diversion of his company’s most powerful products, saying that “These statements were not simply wrong in hindsight. They were contradicted by reporting available at the time and potentially misled U.S. officials.”