China ignored US chip offer, says Lutnick

Chapel Hill (North Carolina), Sep 3 (IANS) US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said China has not accepted President Donald Trump’s offer to sell it advanced American artificial intelligence chips, arguing that further relaxation of technology export controls is therefore unnecessary.

Lutnick made the remarks at a joint press conference with White House science advisor Michael Kratsios following the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Asked whether easing technology export controls could be considered during an expected meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lutnick said he did not believe that would happen.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“President Trump made an offer to sell H200 chips and video chips to China, and they’re equivalent from AMD and others,” Lutnick said. “And the Chinese haven’t really taken it up.”

The Commerce Secretary said Beijing had expressed concerns about the offer and had not purchased the chips.

“So I don’t think it’s necessary because I don’t think it accomplishes what it was intended to,” he said. “The president showed an olive branch, and it hasn’t been taken up, so I think we’re just gonna let it go.”

Lutnick also rejected suggestions that the presence of a Chinese vice-minister at the G20 meeting had raised security concerns because of longstanding US allegations involving intellectual property theft.

“No, the president invited them, and I think it went quite well,” he said.

The Commerce Secretary acknowledged that enforcing export controls had become increasingly complicated as companies and governments used remote access and multiple intermediaries to obtain computing power.

“So we play in export controls a bit of whack-a-mole,” Lutnick said.

He described a process in which a data centre could be leased to one company, which then leased access through other entities before it reached an adversary.

Lutnick said artificial intelligence could itself help American authorities examine the users of US data centres and improve the enforcement of technology restrictions.

“The tools of AI will make this better and better and better,” he said.

The minister placed a strong emphasis on the global use of American AI technology. Kratsios said the Trump administration wanted to share US chips, models and applications with partners, friends and allies.

Lutnick said countries would ultimately choose between frontier systems and open-weight models according to their own requirements and economic calculations.

“That will be decided country by country,” he said. “But that knowledge will be used.”

He warned that countries which failed to adopt artificial intelligence risked falling behind those that moved more quickly.

“If you don’t do that, then you’ll be left behind,” Lutnick said. “So you’ll see whoever doesn’t embrace it a year or two years from today will just be chasing those who didn’t.”

The United States has used export controls to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors and chip-manufacturing equipment that Washington says could strengthen Beijing’s military and surveillance capabilities.

–IANS

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