Trump's Nvidia U-turn ‘will boost Chinese military'
Charles Parton, from the think tank Rusi, said there would 'inevitably' be sales of semiconductors 'which have the possibility of military use'.
'Once exports reach China, the Communist Party can direct their use,' he told The Telegraph.
Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: 'Given Beijing's stated policy of civil-military fusion, it has to be presumed these chips will be used for military applications, and is likely to facilitate the modernisation and expansion of the People's Liberation Army.'
On Tuesday, Nvidia said it had begun filing new applications to sell its advanced chips in China again. 'The US government has assured Nvidia that licences will be granted, and [we] hope to start deliveries soon,' the company said.
The decision to allow Nvidia's most advanced H20 chips to be sold to China reverses an earlier ban by Donald Trump.
The US introduced new restrictions in April amid concerns the technology could be used to build cutting-edge supercomputers in China.
However, a charm offensive by Jensen Huang, Nvidia's boss, appears to have prompted Mr Trump to change his position. This has included attending a $1m (£744k)-a-head dinner at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and promising to build new factories in the US.
Mr de Pulford said: 'This is a regrettable decision which suggests the US now believes it can no longer prevent China from acquiring the technology.'
Theo Zenou, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said it remained a 'definite possibility' that US chips could end up in Chinese military technology. 'The danger remains, and we should expect China to try and use the chips for military applications,' he added.
Under the Biden administration, the US stepped up efforts to block the sale of advanced AI microchips to China. Nvidia's processors are used to power the most advanced AI products and are being installed in their thousands in vast new supercomputers.
'Well-established concern'
US security officials have long warned China could use American-made AI technology for military purposes, while thousands of processors have already been smuggled into the country.
Last week, Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks wrote to Nvidia's Mr Huang ahead of his trip to China, warning him of 'well-established concern' that Nvidia's chips could be used to 'support Chinese military and intelligence activities'.
Mr Huang this week downplayed concerns about the use of Nvidia chips by China's military. 'They don't need Nvidia's chips, certainly, or American tech stacks in order to build their military,' he told CNBC.
He told reporters in Beijing: 'We believe that every civil model should run best on the US technology stack, encouraging nations worldwide to choose America.'
Nvidia's H20 chips were designed to be used by Chinese customers and swerve export controls on its most advanced technology, such as its H200, which remained banned from export to China.
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