Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said Friday he believes administration officials likely trusted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s assurances that nothing improper was happening with chip sales to China, rather than independently verifying the claims themselves.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Cramer said he has not personally been briefed on the matter, though he noted other committees may have been. “I’ve never received a briefing on this specific topic, not that we’d have to be. Maybe the Intelligence Committee was, maybe Foreign Relations, I don’t know,” he said. “But, clearly, people within the administration were, from the timeline that we’ve seen and the points that you’re making right now, that are quite public, about Secretary Rubio’s concerns, the intelligence community’s concerns, and I suspect that people were just taking Mr. Huang’s word for it that there was nothing nefarious going on. But that doesn’t change the fact that there was a prohibition on it.”
Cramer said the president retains flexibility in these matters, but raised a pointed question about internal accountability. “What remains most concerning to me, however, is, was the secretary of Commerce going against the wishes of the president of the United States? They’re going to have to flesh that out,” he said.
The North Dakota Republican said lawmakers had raised alarms about chip sales to China well before this controversy surfaced. “Way back, at least over a year ago, probably, we were already warning, even as a committee, warning about the issue of sales to China,” he said.
He acknowledged China has closed the gap with the United States in some technology sectors, but said the AI chip advantage remains decisive — and worth protecting.
“They’re nowhere near our capability with AI chips. And to give them that advantage, at our cost, at our expense, yes, a lot of people have gotten wealthy selling to China, too, but to our national security detriment, it’s just so galling to me, and I’m surprised it took this long for more — for people to step up.”
Cramer’s comments add to a growing chorus of scrutiny over whether export controls on advanced semiconductors to China were properly enforced, and whether officials at the Commerce Department acted in line with White House policy.
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