LessWrong posts by zvi

“Please Do Not Sell B30A Chips to China” by Zvi


Listen Later

The Chinese and Americans are currently negotiating a trade deal. There are plenty of ways to generate a win-win deal, and early signs of this are promising on many fronts.

Since this will be discussed for real tomorrow as per reports, I will offer my thoughts on this one more time.

The biggest mistake America could make would be to effectively give up Taiwan, which would be catastrophic on many levels including that Taiwan contains TSMC. I am assuming we are not so foolish as to seriously consider doing this, still I note it.

Beyond that, the key thing, basically the only thing, America has to do other than ‘get a reasonable deal overall’ is not be so captured or foolish or both as to allow export of the B30A chip, or even worse than that (yes it can always get worse) allow relaxation of restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing imports.

At first I hadn’t heard signs about this. But now it looks like the nightmare of handing China compute parity on a silver platter is very much in play.

I disagreed with the decision to sell the Nvidia H20 chips to China, but that [...]

---

Outline:

(02:01) What It Would Mean To Sell The B30A

(07:22) A Note On The 'Tech Stack'

(08:32) A Note On Trade Imbalances

(09:06) What If They Don't Want The Chips?

(10:15) Nvidia Is Going Great Anyway Thank You

(11:20) Oh Yeah That Other Thing

---

First published:

October 29th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ijYpLexfhHyhM2HBC/please-do-not-sell-b30a-chips-to-china

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LessWrong posts by zviBy zvi

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

2 ratings


More shows like LessWrong posts by zvi

View all
Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,320 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,451 Listeners

The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

The a16z Show

1,089 Listeners

Future of Life Institute Podcast by Future of Life Institute

Future of Life Institute Podcast

108 Listeners

ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

ChinaTalk

289 Listeners

Politix by Politix

Politix

93 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

512 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,507 Listeners

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

138 Listeners

LessWrong (Curated & Popular) by LessWrong

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

13 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

130 Listeners

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

152 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

467 Listeners

LessWrong (30+ Karma) by LessWrong

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

0 Listeners

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) by Patrick McKenzie

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

134 Listeners