Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called China an “adversary” of the U.S. on Wednesday after a report that the country has told tech companies to stop buying Nvidia‘s artificial intelligence chips.
The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered companies to halt purchases of Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip that was made for the country, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“They steal our intellectual property,” Johnson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “They have no regard whatsoever for U.S. trademark law or any of the other provisions that make for fair trade agreements. It is not the fault of the United States that there are these strained relations.”
Johnson’s comments coincided with remarks from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at a news conference Wednesday in London.
“We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,” he said in response to the ban on the company’s chips. “I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States.”
Nvidia’s stock was slightly lower Wednesday.
CNBC has reached out to the Chinese Embassy for comment.
China’s reported move against Nvidia shows its confidence in domestic chip manufacturing as the country pushes for semiconductor independence by boosting wafer production.
The country, which believes it can make enough chips to meet surging demand, is promoting Huawei’s Ascend 910B as a legitimate rival to Nvidia.
Despite the progress, China is still years behind the most advanced semiconductors, according to Mizuho.
Access to the Chinese market means billions to U.S. chipmakers.
The jab is the latest in a drawn-out battle between the world’s biggest economies over control and access to high-end AI chips.
Last month, the White House reached a deal with Nvidia and competitor Advanced Micro Devices to obtain the export licenses to restart certain chip sales to China.
As part of the deal, both companies agreed to pay 15% of the sales to the U.S. government.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration told Nvidia that it would require a license to sell its China-designed H20 processors in the country.
The company previously created the chip to circumvent prior restrictions on AI chip exports instituted under the Biden administration due to national security concerns.
Huang had previously slammed U.S. chip restrictions and said the curbs nearly halved the company’s market share in China. He also warned that getting cut out of China’s AI market would be a “tremendous loss” for the company.
In its recent quarterly earnings report, Nvidia did not report any H20 chip sales to China.
CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed to this report.
