Sales of a powerful Nvidia AI chip to China gets the greenlight, with conditions

The Trump administration placed new security requirements on Nividia’s semiconductor sales to China, but essentially greenlighted the export of its powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to Chinese buyers.

Nvidia must ensure that there is an adequate supply in the U.S., and the H200 chips must undergo a third-party review before being exported to China, according to new rules set by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. But the new rules lower the bar for exports.

China won’t be allowed to use the chips for military purposes and is not allowed to import more than 50% of the chips sold to U.S. customers.

“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” Nvidia told The Associated Press in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”

The new Commerce rules arrive just over a month after President Donald Trump said he’d allow Nvidia to sell the H200 to “approved customers” in China.

The H200 is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of the approved chips for export.

A group of Democratic senators has objected to sales in China, saying that the chips could aid China’s military, help China carry out more effective cyberattacks against the U.S. and strengthen China’s economic and manufacturing sector.

The approval of the licenses to sell Nvidia H200 chips reflects the increasing power and close relationship that the company’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, enjoys with the president. But there have been concerns that China will find ways to use the chips to develop its own AI products in ways that could pose national security risks for the U.S., a primary concern of the Biden administration which had sought to limit exports.

In August Nvidia and AMD agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China with the U.S. government, as part of a deal to secure export licenses for the semiconductors.