Trump gives Nvidia the OK to sell advanced AI chips to China
US President Donald Trump announced that he will allow AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to “approved customers” in China.
“We will protect National Security, create American jobs, and maintain America’s leadership in artificial intelligence,” Trump said on social media Monday.
The decision will also apply to other US chip companies such as AMD and comes after extensive lobbying by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, who visited Washington last week to rally support.
Nvidia, both the world’s leading chip company and its most valuable company, has found itself at the center of a geopolitical conflict between the US and China in recent months and has been banned from selling its most advanced chips to Beijing.
Trump reversed the chip sales ban in July but demanded that Nvidia pay 15% of its Chinese revenues to the US government.
Beijing then reportedly ordered tech companies to stop purchasing Nvidia chips produced for use in the Chinese market.
“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high-paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” Nvidia said in a statement to BBC News.
Nvidia’s H200 is a generation behind the Blackwell chip, which is considered the world’s most advanced AI semiconductor.
Mr Huang told the BBC in September that the US should “ensure that people can access this technology from all over the world, including China”.
He has also repeatedly warned that China, which has developed a chip manufacturing ecosystem of its own, is just behind the United States in chip development.
Nvidia welcomed Trump’s announcement on Monday.
“Offering the Commerce Department-reviewed H200 to approved commercial customers is a great balance for America,” Nvidia said in a statement.
The company’s shares rose slightly on the news.
Trump said “25 percent dollars” [sic] “It will be paid to the United States of America,” he shared.
The BBC has reached out to the White House to seek clarification on the regulation, which will likely face opposition from national security hawks in Congress.
The sale of H200 chips to some Chinese customers “buys time” for the US to strike a deal with Beijing on rare earths and avoid major disruptions to global supply chains, said Alex Capri of the National University of Singapore.
China has a near monopoly on the processing of rare earth minerals needed for the production of most electronic goods.
While access to H200 chips is likely to benefit China’s technology sector, Beijing is still expected to work to reduce dependence on the United States, Mr. Capri said.
He noted that Beijing had previously directed local tech firms to reject Nvidia’s older H20 chips and encouraged them to buy domestically produced semiconductors.
Researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is using advanced chips designed by US companies to develop AI-enabled military capabilities.
“By making it easier for the Chinese to access these high-quality AI chips, you allow China to more easily use and deploy AI systems for military applications,” said Cole McFaul, senior research analyst at CSET. “They want to leverage advanced chips to gain an advantage on the battlefield.”
