Nvidia faces bipartisan concern over Chinese facility report

By Steven T. Dennis, Bloomberg

Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democrat Elizabeth Warren are demanding answers from Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang on his firm’s reported plans to open a research facility in Shanghai, saying the decision “raises significant national security and economic security concerns.”

Banks and Warren were reacting to a Financial Times report that Nvidia is opening a research and development center in the Chinese city. The news organization, citing people with knowledge of the matter, said the facility would be used for a potential expansion as well as existing employees and that the company is advertising to hire artificial intelligence talent in China.

Nvidia spokesperson Sarah Weinstein disputed the Financial Times report, saying in an emailed statement that the company “is simply leasing a new space for existing employees, who need the room in the post-COVID return to work.”

“The scope of work will remain unchanged,” she added.

The two senators warned the center could result in sensitive information being leaked, stolen or otherwise transferred to China.

Warren and Banks said Nvidia must consider how use of its products could impact US national security. They said the company’s innovation should “occur within the sphere of close democratic allies who share our values.”

“NVIDIA’s great financial and technology success was built on American innovation, American university research funded by taxpayers, and the capital, security, and freedom we provide — not through collaboration with autocracies,” they wrote.

They argued such a move would erode trust between the company and Congress and create a “talent pipeline” for China, citing the report that Nvidia is advertising in the country for engineers. The senators asked the company to provide detailed information about the plans by June 20.

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