The Great AI Export-Control Debate Continues

“Rush Doshi and Chris McGuire argue that China lacks the capacity to sustain its AI industry (Letters, Sept. 2). Reality says otherwise.

 

Beijing has instructed local data centers to allocate at least 50% of capacity to domestic chips.

 

 China's leading open-source models are built to run on local silicon, and its foundry technology is advancing faster than Washington predicted. Far from limiting Beijing, export restrictions have created conditions for faster localization and independence. Messrs. Doshi and McGuire write that Huawei will make no more than 200,000 chips this year -- but that is already outdated. Industry forecasts now put the figure at closer to a million.

 

Export-control proponents frequently blur the line between fabless companies that design chips and foundries that manufacture them. Yet comparing China's manufacturing output with ours as proof that controls on GPUs are effective is like confusing Apple with Foxconn or KFC with a chicken farm.

 

Regulating the end product isn't the same as controlling the means of production. Export controls on GPUs punish American firms and create a stronger incentive for China to develop an alternative ecosystem. They also deny Nvidia, AMD and others access to the world's largest AI talent market.

 

In defense of controls, Messrs. Doshi and McGuire write that if "revenue didn't come from Beijing, it would come from elsewhere." Yet Biden administration policy extended beyond China. Restrictions applied to nearly 100 countries, including half of Europe, all of Africa, and nearly all of South America.

 

The results were predictable. By retreating, Washington handed Chinese companies the customer base we should have kept inside the U.S. ecosystem. Every Chinese developer coding on U.S. hardware strengthens our lead. Every customer pushed toward Huawei speeds up a rival ecosystem, profits Chinese companies and gives them resources to export globally.

 

If Washington wants to stop enriching Beijing, it must reject policies that gift it a trillion-dollar market. Instead of shielding Chinese competitors from U.S. companies, we should ship the American AI stack abroad and lean into what has always made us strong: letting our companies compete, export and win.

 

Aaron Ginn

 

Boulder, Colo.

 

Mr. Ginn is CEO and a co-founder of Hydra Host.” [1]

 

1. The Great AI Export-Control Debate Continues. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 08 Sep 2025: A16.