Trump agrees to let Nvidia sell more powerful H200 GPUs to Chinese corporations

U.S. President Donald Trump said today on social media that he’ll allow Nvidia Corp. to sell its H200 graphics processing units to “approved customers in China,” reversing a policy that had previously prohibited the product from being shipped to the country.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump (pictured) said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had “responded positively” to his proposal. He added that the policy will “support American jobs, strengthen U.S. manufacturing and profit American taxpayers.” The Nvidia H200 GPU is an older chip that’s one generation behind the corporate’s latest “Blackwell” chip, which is widely considered to be one of the vital powerful artificial intelligence processors money should purchase.

Trump specifically identified that Blackwell wouldn’t be a part of the deal. But nonetheless, the move could generate billions of dollars in revenue for Nvidia, which is already the world’s most useful company. Last month, the chipmaker said it currently has a backlog of greater than $500 billion value of orders for its current-generation AI chips, up until the tip of next 12 months, and that’s not including any buyers from China.

In keeping with Trump, Nvidia rivals corresponding to Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp. and “other great American corporations” may even be allowed to sell similar chips to some customers in China. He added that the Department of Commerce is currently “finalizing the small print” of the agreement, which is able to likely still restrict some Chinese entities from doing business with the chipmakers.

The choice by Trump partially brings to an end a long-running ban on the shipment of higher-end processors to China, and it’s very likely that cash played an enormous role in it. Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. government will receive a 25% cut of any sales, up from a previously announced 15% slice of the pie.

Still, it’s not entirely clear what number of chips Chinese corporations will wish to buy. Earlier this 12 months, the U.S. approved the sale of a less powerful chip often called the H20 to China. The H20 chip is a scaled-down version of the H200 that has less throughput, meaning it processes computations more slowly. It was designed to get around earlier rules on the export of chips to China.

Even though it was initially approved under previous President Joe Biden’s administration, Trump banned its export shortly after he returned to the White House. He later reversed that stance, in return for a 15% cut of any sales, only to be snubbed by Xi, who said he wasn’t keen on buying them.

The H200 is a distinct kettle of fish, nevertheless, so Chinese firms may be keen on getting their hands on it. Nvidia seems to think so. In a press release, the corporate said it “applauds President Trump’s decision to permit America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America. Offering H200 to approved industrial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that’s great for America.”

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has been lobbying the White House for months to try to achieve permission to sell more advanced chips to China. He has established close personal relations with Trump during the last 12 months, which can have helped to swing the president’s considering in his favor.

Not everyone seems to be so glad in regards to the deal. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress expressed major reservations about any deal that may allow Chinese firms to purchase advanced American AI chips. One in every of the lawmakers, Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, said he refused to attend a recent meeting with Huang on Capitol Hill because he believes the CEO is simply keen on financial gain. He added that he doesn’t consider him to be “an objective, credible source about whether we must be selling chips to China.”

Last week, Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska insisted that “denying Beijing access to those AI chips is important to our national security.” Ricketts, together with Democrat Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, introduced a proposal often called the SAFE Chips Act, which is geared toward restricting the export of advanced AI chips to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea for at the very least 30 months.

Despite the opposition, it seems likely that Trump may have his way. Semiconductors are one among the largest issues at the guts of the rocky trade relationship between the U.S. and China. The U.S. has sought to limit China’s access to each the perfect chips and likewise the technology obligatory to fabricate them, and Beijing responded recently by imposing export controls on so-called rare-earth materials, that are essential ingredients of processors. Trump hit back by threatening massive tariff increases on U.S. imports from China, but later struck a tentative truce after meeting with Xi in South Korea in October.

Photo: White House