Republican Sen. Dave McCormick (Pa.) is not fully on board with the Trump administration permitting Nvidia to sell its H200 chips in China.

“I’m concerned. I’m not clear on why that is the right path for us,” McCormick said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum. 

The Pennsylvania senator added that while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has “done a remarkable job,” the company selling its most advanced chips will boost China’s AI capabilities. 

Trump said Monday he is lifting export controls on Nvidia, allowing the chipmaker to sell its H200 products, which are more powerful than its H20 chips, to “approved” customers in China. The move came days after the president met with Huang.

Earlier this year, the administration lifted export restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 products in exchange for a 15 percent revenue cut on chips sold to China. Trump said Monday that the chipmaker would give the federal government 25 percent of the revenue from H200 chip sales to China. 

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the president’s latest move. 

A group of Senate Democrats said Monday that H200 chips are “vastly more capable than anything China can make” and that the sale threatens the U.S.’s advantage in the AI race. Meanwhile, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, argued similarly. 

“Because the H200s are far better than what China can produce domestically, both in capability and scale, [Nvidia] selling these chips to China could help it catch up to America in total compute,” Moolenaar said in a statement. 

McCormick said Wednesday that Beijing is on its way toward an “independent” AI capacity, and lifting export controls “would accelerate” that quest.

“I’m interested in hearing more, but at this point, I don’t see the case [for lifting restrictions],” he added.