SAN FRANCISCO, July 11 (Reuters) - A bipartisan pair of

U.S. senators sent a letter to Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang

on Friday about an upcoming trip to China, warning the CEO to

refrain from meeting with companies that are suspected of

undermining U.S. chip export controls.

The letter from Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democratic

Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Huang to also abstain from

meeting with representatives of companies that are working with

the People's Republic of China's military or intelligence bodies

and are named on the U.S. restricted export list.

"We are worried that your trip to the PRC could legitimize

companies that cooperate closely with the Chinese military or

involve discussing exploitable gaps in U.S. export controls,"

the senators wrote.

Huang planned to visit China on Friday.

An Nvidia ( NVDA ) spokesperson said, "American wins" when its

technology sets "the global standard," and that China has one of

the largest bodies of software developers in the world. AI

software "should run best on the U.S. technology stack,

encouraging nations worldwide to choose America," the

spokesperson said.

In May at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Huang praised

President Donald Trump's decision to scrap some artificial

intelligence chip export controls and described the prior

diffusion rules as a failure.

U.S. restrictions in April on AI chips Nvidia ( NVDA ) modified to

comply with export controls to China would reduce Nvidia's ( NVDA )

revenue by $15 billion, the CEO said.

The hardware necessary to power advanced AI is now subject

to a bipartisan consensus related to the free export of such

hardware, the senators wrote. Advanced AI hardware could

"accelerate the PRC's effort to modernize its military," the

letter reads.

U.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly concerned about efforts

to circumvent export controls to China and proposed a law that

would force AI chip companies to verify the location of their

products.

Last month, Reuters reported that a senior U.S. official said

the AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence

operations, and sought to use shell companies to circumvent U.S.

AI chip export controls to China.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) is planning to launch a cheaper version of its flagship

Blackwell AI chips for China, Reuters reported in May.