By John Tamny
Publication Date: 2026-08-18 14:00:00
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 6, 2025. Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence will once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show, as vendors behind the scenes will seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US President-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opens formally in Las Vegas on January 7, 2025, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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News from China continues to reveal the damage of export controls foisted on U.S. chipmakers by the Biden administration. The controls have in varying ways remained in place under the second Trump administration, only for them to be given more life by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Chuck Shumer (D-NY), Tom Cotton (R-AR).
American chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD, Intel and others are being handed the bill for these needless intrusions in the marketplace, though in ways well beyond lost sales. In a very real sense, to focus on sales lost in the near-term is to miss the bigger, long-term point.
Still, to grasp the long-term damage of export controls, it’s useful to start with sales lost in the near term. Before the last two presidential administrations and Congress more broadly happened upon protectionism and industrial policy as national…
