Skepticism Over Trump’s Semiconductor Export Controls
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. AP Yonhap News,
‘[Seoul Economy] ‘,
‘Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, warned that the United States may be underestimating the advancement of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology.’,
‘On the 18th (local time), US CNBC reported that Altman expressed concerns about China, stating that AI competition between the US and China is deeply intertwined. Altman shared insights about his business over dinner with approximately 10 local journalists last week.’,
‘According to the report, Altman said, “In terms of reasoning capabilities, China may be able to develop faster. There are also research and product aspects. Overall, there are many factors,” adding that it’s not as simple as determining who is ahead between the US and China.’,
‘Despite the Trump administration’s semiconductor export controls to China, Altman remained skeptical. When asked if the reduction in the number of graphic processing units (GPUs) exported to China would alleviate concerns, he replied, “My gut feeling is that it won’t be effective.” The Trump administration had banned the sale of Nvidia’s low-spec AI chip H20 to China in April, but recently lifted that ban. It was also reported that Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay 15% of their revenue in China as taxes in exchange for export permits to China.’,
‘Altman mentioned semiconductor fabs that produce chips powering everything from smartphones to large-scale AI systems, stating, “You can control the export of one thing, but it may not be the right approach. People might build fabs or find workarounds. I wish there were an easy solution, but my gut feeling is that it’s challenging.”‘,
‘Altman disclosed that the advancement of China’s AI technology has also affected OpenAI. He explained that OpenAI, which had long resisted external calls for complete open-sourcing, recently released two “open-weight” AI models. The competitiveness of open-source models like China’s DeepSeek was a significant factor in making this decision. He noted, “If we hadn’t done this, the world would likely have been built mostly on China’s open-source models. While it wasn’t the only factor, it was a very important one.”‘