Nvidia Accuses Anthropic of Spinning ‘Tall Tales’ About Chip Restrictions

Nvidia has reportedly criticized Anthropic over its stance on U.S. chip export restrictions.

“American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in ‘baby bumps’ or ‘alongside live lobsters,’” a spokesperson for Nvidia told CNBC Thursday (May 1).

Nvidia’s comments refer to a recent blog post by artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, which accused China of engaging in the above-mentioned smuggling tactics.

“The first Trump Administration correctly diagnosed that AI will be central to strategic competition with China, and that the United States can and should use export controls to maintain and strengthen its AI leadership,” Anthropic wrote.

“While the U.S. still maintains a lead in AI development, Chinese AI labs like DeepSeek have made significant progress, using chips obtained before export controls went into effect, and underscore the importance of strong export controls on advanced chips.”

As CNBC noted, the chip restrictions were set during the final days of President Joe Biden’s tenure and are set to go into effect May 15. These limits, known as the “Diffusion Rule,” are designed to place export controls on advanced AI chips and model weights to prevent countries like China from advancing in the AI race.

“To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world’s AI runs on American rails,” the Biden administration said at the time. “It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems.”

President Donald Trump, the CNBC report added, is working on revising these restrictions, bringing additional uncertainty to an already contentious rule.

A group of Senate Republicans last month wrote to the White House asking Trump to rescind his predecessor’s rule, saying it could hinder domestic innovation and disrupt existing international partnerships.

”Every day this rule remains in place, American companies face mounting uncertainty, stalled investments, and the risk of losing critical global partnerships that cannot be easily regained,” the group’s letter said.

Anthropic wants the government to impose greater restrictions on imports, something that could curb Nvidia’s revenue.

“China, with half of the world’s AI researchers, has highly capable AI experts at every layer of the AI stack. America cannot manipulate regulators to capture victory in AI,” the spokesperson told CNBC.