Минфин США vs Nvidia: Дженсен Хуанг спорит о санкциях против китайского AI

On July 21, 2026, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would begin reviewing Chinese open-source AI models for stolen intellectual property. That same day, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly pushed back, calling this logic backwards.

What the US Treasury said

Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, warned China during a TV appearance on July 21, 2026: American authorities will closely scrutinize Chinese open-weight models for stolen intellectual property. Bloomberg was first to report on the administration's plans.

This concerns open-source models — those published with open weights that, over the past year, have become real competitors to Western developments. Bessent's framing directly ties their distribution to the "theft" of technology from American companies.

• Date of the statement — July 21, 2026 (Tuesday)
• Who — Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary
• What — reviewing Chinese open-source AI models for stolen intellectual property
• Who revealed the plans — Bloomberg
• Opponent within the industry — Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia

Why Jensen Huang disagrees

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, took the opposite position on July 21, 2026: trying to punish Chinese models for "theft," in his view, turns the problem upside down.

The weight of his words comes from the company's position. Nvidia is the largest supplier of graphics processors on which most modern AI models are trained, including the very Chinese systems the Treasury is talking about. That is exactly why the disagreement between Nvidia's chief and the US financial regulator on the very same day is not an ordinary dispute, but a signal of a rift between industry and policymakers.

"Nvidia's

Jensen Huang says that's backwards" — under this headline, the public disagreement between Nvidia's chief and the US Treasury is described by TheNextWeb.

What's behind the dispute

Behind the accusations of "theft" lies a years-long conflict over China's access to advanced AI technology. The US has restricted the export of powerful chips before, and Jensen Huang has repeatedly pointed out that harsh restrictions hurt American manufacturers and only push China toward its own technological independence.

The new twist on July 21, 2026 is the shift of the dispute from "hardware" to the models themselves. If the dispute used to be about selling chips, now Washington, according to Bloomberg, is targeting the software side: open models that can be downloaded and run anywhere. Sanctioning code is far harder than sanctioning physical shipments — and that, judging by Nvidia's position, is exactly what makes the approach contentious.

What this means

The dispute between Bessent and Huang exposes the central question of the US-China AI race: should open Chinese models be treated as a security threat or as an inevitable product of global competition? Whichever logic prevails will determine whether open-source models fall under a sanctions regime for the first time — and how Nvidia, whose business depends on global demand for AI chips, will respond.

Frequently asked questions

Why do the US want to review Chinese AI models?

According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (July 21, 2026), US authorities intend to examine Chinese open-source models for intellectual property stolen from American companies. Bloomberg was first to report on the administration's plans.

Why does Nvidia's chief disagree with Washington?

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, considers this approach backwards. His company is the world's largest supplier of AI chips, and restrictions against Chinese models affect the entire global market in which Nvidia operates.