Trump clears way for Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China | Nvidia
Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to start selling its powerful AI computer chips to China. It’s a victory for the chipmaker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who spent months lobbying the White House to launch sales in the country.
Before Monday’s announcement, the United States had banned sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China due to national security concerns.
“I informed Chinese President Xi that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship H200 products to approved customers in China and other countries under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security,” Trump said. sent to Truth Social on Monday. “President Xi responded positively!”
Trump said the Commerce Department is finalizing the details and plans to make the same offer to other chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. Nvidia’s H200 chips are the company’s second most powerful chip.
The President said the United States would receive 25% of the revenues; This follows similar unorthodox plans for the federal government to defund private business deals. In August, Trump announced that he would buy a 10% stake in the US technology company Intel. Some MPs questioned its legality of such regulations.
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andy Kim of New Jersey, according to Hill sent a letter He outlined his concerns about selling these chips to China to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week, saying it risked empowering the country’s “surveillance, censorship and military practices.”
“I implore you to stop ignoring the input of bipartisan members of Congress and your own experts to cut deals that endanger America’s national security,” the senators wrote.
Huang has worked closely with Trump since his inauguration and has made multiple visits to the White House. The CEO attended the president’s artificial intelligence summit in July, met with Trump last week, and was even a guest at a White House dinner for Saudi royal prince Mohammed bin Salman. Huang also pledged to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years.
Now, selling chips to China, the world’s second-largest economy, could mean a windfall worth billions of dollars for Nvidia, which is currently valued at $4.5 trillion.
“We applaud President Trump’s decision,” an Nvidia spokesperson said. He added that making H200 chips “available to approved commercial customers vetted by the Department of Commerce strikes a great balance for America.”
Nvidia spokesperson and Trump said this move will support employment and production in the US. In his Truth Social post, Trump condemned the Biden administration’s policies imposing strict export controls on powerful chips. The Biden administration had said that hiding such technologies from China strengthens US competition, protects national security and prevents the development of artificial intelligence in China.
“THAT ERA IS OVER!” Trump wrote. “My administration will always put America FIRST.” .
