FILE PHOTO: The NVIDIA logo is displayed on a building in Taipei, Taiwan April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo

By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmaker John Moolenaar, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan select committee focused on China, on Friday asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explain the details of President Donald Trump's decision to allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China.

The move by Trump earlier this week signaled a marked break with precedent from Trump's own first administration and that of former President Joseph Biden's of not allowing China access to the most powerful artificial intelligence hardware from U.S. chip firms. The H200 is the predecessor to Nvidia's current flagship chips and is still in use in the U.S. AI industry.

In a letter to Lutnick on Friday, Moolenaar cited media reports that said Trump's decision was based at least in part on claimed chip performance gains by Huawei Technologies Co, which is developing its own AI chips. But those gains came from a chip that was illegally procured through shell companies from Taiwanese and Korean suppliers, Moolenaar's letter said, and Huawei's next offering is expected to take a step backward when only depending on domestic Chinese chip factories.

Moolenaar said that the coming setback for Huawei was proof Trump's earlier approach to export controls was working and changing course presented risks.

"As AI evolves, aggregate computing power – not theoretical per-chip efficiency – will remain the engine of progress," Moolenaar wrote. "Approving the sale of cutting-edge chips to Chinese companies risks undercutting the extraordinary strategic advantage that President Trump achieved in his first term."

Moolenaar asked Lutnick for a briefing on the evidence and analysis underlying the H200 decision by mid-January.

The White House and Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)