Kevin O’Leary believes the United States is going about the AI race all wrong. The investor and TV personality says efforts to block American tech companies from selling advanced AI chips to countries like China won’t stop those nations from catching up. Instead, it could backfire.
“Restricting Nvidia and AMD chips doesn’t hurt China; it just pushes them to build their own stack. That’s a strategic mistake,” O’Leary said.
“Sell Everybody Everything”
In a video posted on X, O’Leary said the U.S. should abandon the idea of restricting exports and instead focus on selling its hardware globally, even to adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran.
“I don’t agree with the policy of holding back chipsets from any U.S. company,” he said.
“The whole idea in order to win AI data supremacy is to sell everybody everything and then force them, because of the technology, to develop their stacks on American chips.”
He argued that if the world builds its AI infrastructure on U.S.-made chips, America retains control of the platform and stays years ahead.
O’Leary warned that restricting Nvidia and AMD products only motivates countries like China to build their own alternatives, which he called a “horrible outcome.”
A Missed Opportunity to Attract Global Talent
O’Leary compared his strategy to what the U.S. did after World War II, when the country attracted top scientists from Germany and other nations. He believes that by selling chips globally, the U.S. could identify brilliant developers abroad and invite them to live and work in America.
“Geniuses are born every day,” he said. “You say, how would you like to come to America with your family and work here and grow and work in the land of freedom and opportunity? What do you think they’d say?”
His message to lawmakers: “Sell it to them and sell it now.”
Congress Backs Off Export Restrictions
O’Leary’s comments came just as Congress decided not to include the GAIN AI Act in the annual defense bill. The proposed legislation would have forced companies like Nvidia and AMD to prioritize U.S. customers before selling chips to China and other countries under arms embargoes.
Nvidia strongly opposed the measure, arguing it would damage U.S. competitiveness without any real benefit. CEO Jensen Huang even traveled to Washington to speak with President Donald Trump and lawmakers.
Huang later called the decision to drop the GAIN AI Act “wise” and said the proposal was “even more detrimental to the United States than the AI diffusion act.”
While Nvidia won this round, lawmakers are already working on a new version called the SAFE Act (Secure and Feasible Exports Act), which aims to formalize and tighten restrictions on selling advanced AI chips to China.
The bill would codify existing export controls into law, potentially making it harder for companies like Nvidia to ship powerful chips abroad in the future.
It signals that Congress isn’t done trying to curb access to U.S. technology over national security concerns, even after the GAIN AI Act was excluded from the defense bill.
For now, O’Leary is urging policymakers to focus on innovation instead of restrictions.
As he put it, “That’s how you win the technology war, because it’s people writing code for hardware. You want the coders. You want the developers to control the narrative.”
And for that to happen, he believes America needs to keep selling its chips everywhere.