Nvidia H200 Chip China: Nvidia H200 chip exports to China gets nod from Donald Trump administration but NVDA’s 2nd most powerful AI chips require special review
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% of the total amount of chips sold to American customers. Nvidia will need to certify that sufficient numbers of H200s are available in the US, while Chinese customers will need to demonstrate “adequate security procedures” and not be able to use the chips for military purposes. These conditions have not been created before.
Nvidia and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. US President Donald Trump announced last month that he would allow the sale of chips to the US government for a 25 percent fee. The decision sparked backlash 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.
Chinese tech companies have ordered more than 2 million H200 chips, priced at about $27,000 each, Reuters reported last month; This figure exceeded Nvidia’s stock of 700,000 chips. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company was ramping up production of H200 chips as strong demand from both China and the rest of the world has increased rental prices for H200 chips in cloud computing data centers.
Security 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 such as heavily sanctioned Huawei from redoubling efforts to catch up with Nvidia and AMD’s most advanced chip designs.
When Trump announced the sales last month, he said they would be exported to China “under conditions that allow for the maintenance of strong National Security.” But questions have arisen about whether the administration will, in practice, impose any limits on chip shipments or whether Beijing will allow their sales domestically.
