US authorises Nvidia H200 chip exports to China
The Trump administration has given the green light to the sale of Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chips to China, setting a rule that shipments of the H200 will likely begin despite deep concerns among China hawks in Washington.
Under the regulations, the chips will be examined by a third-party testing lab to verify their technical AI capabilities before being shipped to China, which receives no more than 50 percent of the total amount of chips sold to American customers.
Nvidia must certify that sufficient numbers of H200s are available in the US, while Chinese customers will need to demonstrate “adequate security procedures” and cannot use the chips for “military purposes.”
US President Donald Trump announced in December that he would allow the sale of chips and charge a 25 percent fee on these sales.
The decision drew fire from China hawks across the US political spectrum over concerns that the chips would strengthen Beijing’s military and erode the US advantage in artificial intelligence.
Such concerns had led the Biden administration to ban the sale of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.
But the Trump administration, led by White House AI czar David Sacks, argues that shipping advanced AI chips to China has deterred Chinese rivals like Huawei from redoubling their efforts to catch up with the most advanced chip designs from Nvidia and AMD.
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