THE CHIP WARS
Davos, GPUs, and a comparison nobody expected
Last week, the US administration approved the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chips and a similar AMD chip line to approved customers in China, after briefly reversing an earlier ban.
While these are not the most advanced chips available, they are still widely used for AI, making the decision contentious.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly criticised both the administration and the chipmakers.
The comments were notable given Nvidia’s role as Anthropic’s main GPU supplier and a major investor.
Amodei rejected claims that export controls are holding back innovation, warning that allowing these sales could harm US interests in the long run.
He argued that the US still holds a strong lead in chipmaking and that advanced AI systems carry serious national security risks.
He described the decision as reckless, using an extreme comparison to underline the stakes:
Amodei warned, "Sending these chips to China is a grave mistake," adding, "It is similar to selling nuclear weapons to North Korea."
The remarks were striking because they came shortly after Nvidia and Anthropic announced a deep technical partnership and an investment reportedly worth up to $10 billion.
Nvidia remains central to the AI ecosystem, supplying GPUs to all major cloud providers Anthropic relies on.
In short:
The US approved limited AI chip sales to China, reviving export control concerns.
Anthropic’s CEO openly criticised the move despite Nvidia’s close ties to the company.
The AI race is increasingly treated as a national and geopolitical issue, not just a commercial one.
No walking it back
Anthropic’s strong market position may explain the blunt tone.
The company has raised significant funding, commands a high valuation, and its Claude coding assistant is well regarded by developers working on complex projects.
More broadly, the episode shows how openly AI leaders are now willing to talk about geopolitical risk, even when it puts business relationships under strain.
Amodei chose chaos this morning. - MV