Chris McGuire is a former National Security Council deputy senior director for technology and national security. Oren Cass is chief economist at American Compass.

In the global race to build up computing power to fuel the development of artificial intelligence, the United States and its allies possess an extraordinary technological edge over China. But the Trump administration is on the verge of squandering this hard-won strategic advantage in pursuit of short-term profit, which would cost the United States dearly down the road.