The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, caused a stir at the World Economic Forum in Davos when he sharply criticized the US administration's decision to allow the sale of advanced AI chips to China. His words were all the more surprising because one of the main manufacturers of these chips is Nvidia—a key partner and investor in his own company.
Comparison to Selling Nuclear Weapons
Amodei addressed the issue on Tuesday, January 20, during an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. His words were utterly uncompromising. "I think it's crazy," Amodei said of the decision by President Donald Trump's administration. He compared the situation to "selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and bragging that Boeing made the casings."
This comparison is particularly striking given that Nvidia recently announced an investment of up to $10 billion in Anthropic (approximately CZK 230 billion). Nvidia also supplies the graphics processors that power Anthropic's AI models on Microsoft, Amazon, and Google servers. In other words, Amodei publicly attacked his largest technology partner and investor.
What Actually Happened?
Last week, the US administration officially approved the sale of Nvidia H200 chips and a similar line of AMD chips to approved Chinese customers. Although these processors are not the latest or most advanced, they are still high-performance chips used for artificial intelligence. The decision reverses a previous ban intended to prevent Beijing and its military from developing AI capabilities using American technology.
Under the revised rules, the H200 chip, which was introduced more than two years ago, will become the most advanced AI chip legally available to Chinese customers. Meanwhile, Nvidia continues to sell the more advanced Blackwell generation in the US and is preparing to transition to an even faster line of chips named after astronomer Vera Rubin. Both of these lines will remain banned in China for security reasons.
A Concerned Amodei
Anthropic's CEO explained why he considers this decision dangerous. "The United States is many years ahead of China in terms of our ability to make chips," Amodei said. "So I think it would be a big mistake to ship these chips."
Amodei then painted an alarming picture of what is at stake. He spoke of the "incredible national security implications" of AI models that represent "essentially cognition, essentially intelligence." He compared future AI to "a country of geniuses in a data center" and asked listeners to imagine "100 million people smarter than any Nobel Prize winner, all of whom will be under the control of one country or another."
This image underscored why he believes chip exports matter so much. Amodei has long urged the Trump administration to maintain strict controls, arguing that China remains behind in AI development partly because of the chip embargo. He warned that expanded access to cutting-edge processors could change how authoritarian governments deploy artificial intelligence.
Political Tensions
Amodei is not alone in his objections. On Capitol Hill, leading Republicans such as House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast are pushing for legislation that would prevent China from accessing sensitive American technology. On the other hand, MAGA influencers such as Laura Loomer and David Sacks, who is responsible for AI and cryptocurrency in the Trump administration, defend the president's policy.
During the Bloomberg interview, Amodei avoided directly blaming Sacks, who is widely considered the architect of Trump's AI policy. "I'm not going to refer to any specific individuals, but I would just say that this particular policy is not well thought out," Amodei said.
Industry Reaction
The decision represents a significant victory for Nvidia, which argued that long-term restrictions could prompt China to accelerate the development of domestic alternatives if access to American chips remained blocked. Rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is also seeking approval to sell its MI325X chip in China.
Trump also announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on the chips Nvidia plans to ship to China. The Bureau of Industry and Security revised its policy on licensing chip sales to China last week.
Courage or Recklessness?
Among AI experts, Amodei is something of an exception in his criticism, but he is certainly not alone. His willingness to publicly criticize both the administration and his own business partners is remarkable. Anthropic is in a strong position—the company has raised billions of dollars, is valued in the hundreds of billions, and its Claude coding assistant has built a reputation as a highly popular, cutting-edge AI coding tool, especially among developers working on complex projects.
It is possible that this was simply a careless moment—perhaps he got carried away by his own rhetoric and blurted out the comparison. But given Anthropic's strong position in the AI market, it seems more likely that he felt confident enough to speak openly.
It is also entirely possible that Anthropic is genuinely concerned about Chinese AI labs and wants Washington to act. If you want to get someone's attention, comparing something to nuclear proliferation is probably quite an effective way to do it.
But perhaps most remarkable is that Amodei could sit on stage in Davos, drop such a bombshell, and leave for another meeting without worrying that he had just harmed his business. News cycles move on, that is true. Anthropic is also on solid ground right now. But it seems that the AI race has become so existential in the minds of its leaders that the usual constraints—investor relations, strategic partnerships, diplomatic niceties—no longer apply. Amodei does not care about what he can and cannot say. More than anything else he said on that stage, this fearlessness is worth noting.
Sources: techcrunch.com and finance.yahoo.com
