Senator Chris Coons of Delaware has formally challenged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick regarding the potential sale of Nvidia's advanced H200 AI chips to China. The inquiry follows conflicting statements made by government officials and Nvidia leadership about the status of these exports. During an April 22 hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Lutnick stated that he understood no H200 chips had yet been sold to Chinese companies. He asserted, we have not sold them any chips as of yet. This testimony directly contradicted earlier comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who told reporters in March that the company had secured approvals from both the U.S. and Chinese governments to export the H200 model to China. In a letter dated Thursday, Coons highlighted this discrepancy. He wrote that Lutnick's testimony before the committee appeared to contradict Huang's public remarks. Coons, who also serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent the letter just weeks before President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Trump administration announced in 2025 that Nvidia would require a specific export license to sell these high-performance chips to China and a handful of other nations. Prior to these restrictions, sales to China accounted for at least one-fifth of Nvidia's data center revenue. Coons expressed deep concern that allowing Chinese entities to purchase the H200 chips presents a serious risk to U.S. national security and economic leadership. The Senator has requested a detailed response from Lutnick within the next week. Specifically, Coons wants to know the number of H200 chips that have received export licenses, how many units have already been shipped to China, and how many additional licenses the Commerce Department plans to approve. A spokesperson for the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the letter or the current export status of the chips. The situation underscores the ongoing tension between the U.S. government's efforts to maintain a technological edge and the commercial interests of American semiconductor firms in the global market.