Nvidia has been approved to sell H200 chips to China, requiring a 25% share to be paid to the U.S. government
On December 9, Beijing time, Bloomberg reported that U.S. President Trump has approved Nvidia's export of its H200 AI chips to China, on the condition that the U.S. government can take a 25% share from the sales. This move marks a significant lobbying victory for Nvidia and could potentially help it regain the billions of dollars in business lost in this crucial global market.
Trump announced this decision on his Truth Social platform, ending weeks of discussions with advisors about whether to approve the export of the H200 chips to China. He added that sales will be limited to "approved customers," and the U.S. government will receive a 25% share. Other chip manufacturers, including Intel and AMD, will also be eligible for licenses to sell chips to China.
"We will protect national security, create American jobs, and maintain America's leadership in the AI field," Trump stated in his post. "Nvidia's American customers are already deploying its exceptional, cutting-edge Blackwell chips, and will soon deploy Rubin chips, neither of which are included in this agreement." Rubin is Nvidia's more advanced chip series.
Before Trump announced this decision, a knowledgeable source indicated that approving Nvidia's export of the H200 to China was a compromise based on the previous generation Hopper architecture. Previously, Nvidia had lobbied the Trump administration to sell its more advanced Blackwell chips to Chinese customers.
For Nvidia, being granted permission to sell H200 chips to China represents a victory in pushing Trump and Congress to ease export controls. These controls have been preventing Nvidia from selling its AI chips to China, the world's second-largest economy. Since the U.S. election in November 2024, Jensen Huang has developed a close relationship with Trump and leveraged this relationship to articulate his view: export controls only serve to help domestic Chinese giants like Huawei.
As of the time of publication, neither the U.S. Department of Commerce nor Nvidia has commented on this matter.
