US in talks with Nvidia about AI chip sales to China -- Raimondo

NASHUA, New Hampshire, Dec 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Monday her department is in discussions with Nvidia Corp about permissible sales of artificial intelligence chips to China but emphasized it cannot sell its most advanced semiconductors to Chinese firms.

"They can, will and should sell AI chips to China because most AI chips will be for commercial applications," Raimondo told Reuters in an interview after an event. "What we cannot allow them to ship is the most sophisticated, highest processing power AI chips, which would enable China to train their frontier models."

Raimondo said she spoke a week ago to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and he was "crystal clear. We don't want to break the rules. Tell us the rules, we'll work with you." (Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul)