Twenty-five American technology giants, including NVIDIA and Microsoft, released a joint letter on Friday, urging the Trump administration not to impose "premature restrictions" on open-source artificial intelligence models, as this would "stifle competition and force innovation overseas."
The Washington Post noted that although this open letter did not mention China, the stance expressed in it would be beneficial to Chinese artificial intelligence companies. Some people in Silicon Valley and the Trump administration believe that U.S. policies should restrict these Chinese companies.
Reports indicate that leading Chinese artificial intelligence companies, such as DeepSeek, have made their most advanced AI models available for free, allowing anyone to download or use them. Many companies worldwide, including those from the United States, are using these “open” models as an alternative to expensive AI services provided by American firms like OpenAI and Google.
As the performance of free AI models in China becomes increasingly similar to that of paid products in the United States, some senior executives of technology companies and U.S. national security officials are becoming increasingly anxious.
It has been reported that the Trump administration is considering banning Chinese artificial intelligence models from entering the US market. Senior White House officials have also accused Chinese companies of stealing US intellectual property rights using a “distillation” method, and have threatened to impose sanctions.
In response to this, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the development of artificial intelligence in China is not only a result of promoting high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology, but also thanks to China's consistent adherence to the concept of joint consultation, joint construction, and joint benefits.
Although OpenAI did not sign this letter, its president Greg Brockman stated that the company supports the widespread use of AI technologies. He did not participate in any discussions regarding whether the Trump administration would ban Chinese open-weighted models from entering the US market.
Meanwhile, nearly 200 companies in Silicon Valley are also pressing the Trump administration not to cut off the United States’ access to Chinese artificial intelligence models. Otherwise, the development of the next generation of American startups could be stifled.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure startup Particle's founder Suhail Doshi said in an interview: "Hundreds of companies will be ruined in an instant. This is of course good for Anthropic, because we all have to pay money to use Anthropic's services."
