The chip that the Trump administration this month has started allowing Nvidia, America’s leading chip maker, to sell to China has become a focal point in the increasingly tense competition for ascendancy over artificial intelligence.

The administration’s decision amounted to a major reversal of a yearslong effort by Washington to restrain China’s technological and military progress by controlling its access to advanced American technology.

In China, tech industry insiders and analysts said the Nvidia chip would help sustain the country’s A.I. progress while Nvidia’s Chinese rivals like Huawei race to improve domestic alternatives.

But on Thursday, the Chinese government’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, said that it had summoned Nvidia to explain security risks associated with the chip, including whether it had the ability to track users’ locations.

The move underscores the political sensitivities surrounding the chip, a lower performance but still coveted model known as the H20.