NVIDIA H200 accelerators designed for artificial intelligence infrastructure, may be exported to China and other countries “under conditions that protect national security”Trump wrote on his social network. NVIDIA will have to pay the United States 25% of the revenue.
«The Department of Commerce is finalizing the details of this type of operations and This same approach will be applied to AMD, Intel and other large American companies«clarified a Trump who would have informed his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, of the measure.
NVIDIA also has a specific license to export the H20 chip to China, with a lower capacity than the H200, and designed specifically for the Chinese giant, in exchange for 15% of sales. The measure does not affect other next-generation platforms such as Blackwell.
The decision comes after pressure from NVIDIA itself. The green giant, absolute leader in hardware for AI, says “applaud President Trump’s decision to allow the American chip industry to compete to boost good-paying jobs and manufacturing in the United States. Offering the chips to commercial customers approved by the Department of Commerce strikes a smart and beneficial balance for the United States..
AI chips and geopolitical issues
Blocking the export of advanced chips to China has been the general rule of the US legislature under the well-known “national security” and It remains to be seen when Trump’s decision will take shape.. In fact, Republican and Democratic senators jointly introduced a bill last week that calls for blocking the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China for more than two years.
The Secure and Feasible Chip Exports (SAFE) Act would require the Commerce Department to deny any export license for advanced AI chips to China for 30 months. It’s unclear when lawmakers will vote on the bill, especially now that the Trump administration has given the green light to the sale of the NVIDIA H200s.
Additionally, last September, the Internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, banned domestic companies from buying NVIDIA chipsleaving the country’s companies dependent on less advanced, but highly available domestic chips from Alibaba and Huawei.
