Senator Christopher Coons reportedly said on Thursday he would prefer democracies and allies to have access to Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) advanced AI chips rather than authoritarian countries like China.

In an interview with CNBC, Coons highlighted concerns about China gaining access to advanced AI chips at a time when it is “trying to embed their systems and their technology into everything.”

“What I’m concerned about today is press accounts of Nvidia continuing to develop farther and farther cutting-edge chips for export to China. Obviously, this is a race… race for whose technology, whose standards are going to govern the 21st century. I want free markets and free societies, democracies to have the upper hand against an authoritarian regime like the PRC,” Coons said in the interview.

As for the H20 chips that President Trump has allowed Nvidia to export to China, Coons remarked that they are “far from crappy,” but said he would factor it in his criticism of the Trump administration’s decision.

“The willingness displayed in this arrangement to ‘negotiate’ away America’s competitive edge that is key to our national security in exchange for what is, in effect, a commission on a sale of AI-enabling technology to our main global competitor, is cause for serious alarm,” Senate Democrats said in a letter dated August 15, after the Trump administration allowed Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to sell H20 and MI320 AI chips to China, in exchange for a 15% share in such sales.

Nvidia’s shares were down nearly 1% during Thursday’s opening trade, while AMD’s shares edged 0.04% lower. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Nvidia was in the ‘bullish’ territory, while users felt ‘bearish’ about AMD.

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