President Donald Trump granted Nvidia permission to export its H200 artificial intelligence chip to China, in exchange for the US government receiving 25% of the sales of those chips, in a move that is considered a major win for lobbying efforts led by the world's most valuable company, and may allow it to recover billions of dollars in business it lost in one of its most important global markets.
The decision was announced via a post by Trump on the Truth Social platform, concluding weeks of deliberations with his advisors about whether to grant permission to export the H200 to China.
Trump said he informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of the move, and that Xi responded positively. He added that sales would only go to approved customers, and that chip manufacturers, including Intel and AMD, would also be eligible.
Trump said, We will protect national security, create American jobs, and maintain America's leadership in artificial intelligence. He added that Nvidia's customers in the United States are already making progress in using advanced Blackwell chips and, soon, Rubin chips, noting that these two product lines are not covered by the agreement.
A compromise after previous agreements failed
Allowing exports of the H200 is seen as a compromise compared to Nvidia's previous payment to allow the sale of Blackwell's advanced chips to China, according to a person familiar with the matter ahead of the official announcement.
Spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Commerce and Nvidia have not yet commented on Trump's post.
Previous arrangements promoted by Trump, in which Nvidia and AMD would pay a portion of their chip sales revenue in China, failed, as no regulations were issued authorizing such payments, in addition to Beijing's opposition to those exports and the lack of demand from Chinese customers, which made that idea unfeasible.
Partial victory for Nvidia
Allowing the sale of the H200 to China represents a victory for Nvidia in its efforts to persuade Trump and Congress to relax export controls that have prevented it from selling artificial intelligence chips in the world's second-largest economy.
CEO Jensen Huang has forged a close relationship with Trump since the November 2024 election, and has used it to push his argument that US restrictions give an advantage to domestic Chinese state-backed companies like Huawei.
After his meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Huang expressed uncertainty about whether China would accept H200 chips if restrictions were eased. “We don’t know. We have no idea,” he said before entering a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Banking Committee, which has authority over export controls. “We can’t weaken the chips we sell to China; they won’t accept them.”
Earlier this summer, Nvidia received permission to sell the less powerful H20 chip, which is designed to fall below current export limits.
But China quickly asked potential customers to avoid the product and rely on locally made chips, effectively ousting Nvidia from the country's data center market.
A huge market for Nvidia
President Donald Trump raised the possibility of selling a reduced-powered version of the Blackwell chip to the United States' primary geopolitical adversary, but this has not yet materialized following his October meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Members of the Trump administration, including U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bisent, have said they would not support selling a version of these chips to China at this time.
Last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the Chinese market represents a $50 billion opportunity for his company, even though Nvidia is currently excluding data center revenue from China from its financial projections. He added in an interview with Bloomberg Television: “We would very much like to have the opportunity to re-engage in the Chinese market.”
Another victory for Nvidia in Congress
Nvidia scored another lobbying victory last week in Congress, where lawmakers removed a provision from key defense legislation that would have limited the company's ability to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips to China and other adversarial nations.
The so-called Gain AI would have required chip manufacturers, including Nvidia and AMD, to give American customers priority in purchasing powerful chips before selling them in China and countries under arms embargo.
Any relaxation of export restrictions would represent a major shift from the policies implemented starting in 2022 to prevent Beijing and its military from accessing cutting-edge American technologies. Such a shift would likely provoke fierce opposition from national security hawks in Washington, who view export controls as a means of preventing adversaries like China from gaining an edge in the artificial intelligence race.
Risks of selling the H200 chip to China
The H200 chip, which the company began shipping to customers last year, is used to train and operate AI models. The prospect of selling a more powerful processor to China has bolstered the arguments of lawmakers from both parties who have unsuccessfully pushed for Gain AI's approval.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, warned that allowing the sale of this chip to China would rapidly enhance Chinese military capabilities and undermine American technological leadership.
