Credit: Levart_Photographer on Unsplash OpenAI has stopped pushing for strict US limits on selling advanced chips to China, according to Politico. For much of last year the company openly called for such limits. Capitol Hill aides and lobbyists with direct knowledge of its position now say it has gone quiet. TNW has not independently verified the report.
The shift is a win for Nvidia, which is fighting the proposals. It also puts OpenAI closer to President Donald Trump, who has built close ties with the chipmaker and its chief executive, Jensen Huang. OpenAI’s officials “were with us on this and now their position is a bit more fuzzy,” one congressional aide told Politico. “Silence is doing Nvidia’s work for it.” A fight over the defense bill The timing matters. China hawks in Congress want to attach new chip restrictions to the annual defense spending bill.
They plan to push after the midterm election, in what is known as the lame-duck session. They were counting on OpenAI to back the measures, Politico reported. Its pullback leaves them without one of their most prominent industry allies. One lobbyist put OpenAI’s reasoning simply. “They got the message,” the lobbyist told Politico. “There is no appetite to challenge the president at this moment.” Anthropic has taken the opposite path.
It backs several of the chip bills, and quit a major tech trade group in September over the group’s push to soften them. OpenAI, more than its rival, now appears to be tracking the policy goals Trump wants. Why OpenAI may be holding back OpenAI depends on Nvidia’s chips, and the two have grown closer. Nvidia finalised a $30bn equity investment in OpenAI in February.
Under a separate deal in August, Nvidia agreed to be the sole chip supplier at an Ohio data centre OpenAI will lease, and to guarantee up to $105bn for its first phase. The company’s public line has softened over time. In March 2025, OpenAI told the administration it supported keeping China under “strict export controls”. A federal framework it proposed in June 2026 had a single line calling to “strengthen export controls”, without naming China.
In a letter last October, it asked the White House to loosen some export rules for AI safety testing. In a statement, OpenAI did not address its meetings with lawmakers or officials. “We want the US to continue to have the most powerful AI models, maintain and widen its compute advantage, and lead in setting global standards,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. “US labs having a substantial lead in advanced chips is key to achieving those goals, and effective export control policies are one part of that broader strategy.” Nvidia declined to comment. The China hawks push back The hawks say chip limits answer the public’s rising fears about AI security. They argue the US is a more responsible steward of the technology than Beijing.
A steady run of headlines about breaches and rogue AI agents has sharpened their case. Not everyone is convinced the retreat is wise. Nathan Calvin, general counsel at the advocacy group Encode, linked the two debates. Its mind-boggling to me that so many people are hesitant to support AI safety rules on the grounds that it might help China, but some of those same folks want to sell far more advanced AI chips to China.
Sad to see OpenAI retreat on this issue (to keep NVIDIA happy?) Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin) October 20, 2026 The White House wants US firms to sell more high-tech chips abroad. Trump has reversed limits on some of Nvidia’s powerful chips to China. In return, the chipmaker agreed to give the US government a share of the revenue. A White House official disputed that the president has eased the rules, and said the administration runs “the most rigorous export control regime in modern history”.
The pressure is unlikely to ease. The move lands a day after the US ordered federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products, and days after China proposed its own export controls on AI models and chips. Chinese firms, meanwhile, are still ordering billions in Nvidia chips that US rules still allow. Get the TNW newsletter ✕ Close Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
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