Standing His Ground on National Security
Sometimes business partnerships don't change your political views, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made that crystal clear this week. Speaking at the New York Times Dealbook summit on Wednesday with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Amodei doubled down on his position against selling Nvidia Corp (NVDA) chips to China—even though his company just inked a massive deal with the chipmaker.
"My view hasn't changed," Amodei stated plainly. He was quick to clarify his respect for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, adding, "This isn't personal. This is a policy question..."
The core of Amodei's concern? National security. He's worried about China's potential to outsmart the United States across multiple fronts—intelligence gathering, defense capabilities, and economic competitiveness. In his view, democracies need to maintain their lead in advanced AI development, and selling cutting-edge chips to China only increases the odds of them gaining ground in this critical technological race.
Nvidia's China Problem Gets Bigger
Amodei's remarks couldn't come at a more sensitive moment for Nvidia. The company is facing mounting political pressure over its China business. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently introduced the Secure and Feasible Exports Chips Act, which would block Nvidia from selling high-end processors to China for 30 months.
President Donald Trump has also weighed in on the issue. According to Reuters, Trump met with CEO Jensen Huang and praised him for grasping the president's position on export controls. "Smart man," Trump reportedly said of Huang.
The political winds are clearly shifting, making Nvidia's substantial China revenue stream increasingly precarious.
A Partnership Built on Disagreement
Here's where things get interesting. Anthropic and Nvidia haven't exactly been best friends. The relationship between these two AI powerhouses has been, well, complicated.
Back in August, speaking on the Big Technology Podcast, Amodei pushed back hard against Huang's suggestions that he was trying to dominate or slow down the AI industry. Amodei called the accusation "the most outrageous lie I've ever heard" and expressed frustration at being labeled a "doomer" who wants to impede AI progress.
Yet just three months later, everything changed. In November, Nvidia entered into a strategic partnership with Anthropic and Microsoft (MSFT), involving a combined $15 billion investment in the AI startup. Huang even praised Anthropic publicly, saying the company has "revolutionized" agentic AI through its advancements in model context protocols and code-generation systems.
It's worth noting that Anthropic is backed by Amazon.com (AMZN), adding another layer of complexity to the tech industry's increasingly tangled web of relationships.
The takeaway? You can do business with someone while still disagreeing on major policy questions. Amodei seems determined to prove that point, maintaining his stance on China even as his company benefits from Nvidia's partnership dollars. In the high-stakes world of AI development, where geopolitics and technology collide, it's a position that's likely to keep him in the spotlight.