Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has announced that he will allow the export of Nvidia’s AI chip ‘H200’ to China. On December 8th local time, President Trump stated via social media platform Truth Social, “I have informed President Xi Jinping of China that we will permit Nvidia to ship H200 products to approved customers in China and other countries, on the condition that the United States can maintain strong national security.” He added, “President Xi responded positively.”
President Trump mentioned that “25% of the sales revenue from the H200 will be paid to the United States,” stating that “this policy will support American jobs, strengthen U.S. manufacturing, and benefit American taxpayers.”
However, President Trump explained that Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, ‘Blackwell’ and the soon-to-be-released ‘Rubin’, are not included in this agreement. The H200, though lagging behind the latest ‘Blackwell’-based GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), shows a significant performance gap compared to the low-spec chip ‘H20’, which is currently approved for export to China.
President Trump also stated, “The Department of Commerce is finalizing the details, and this approach will be applied to AMD, Intel, and other great American companies.” In 2022, during the Biden administration, the U.S. implemented export control regulations prohibiting the export of cutting-edge AI chips to China. The Trump administration has also restricted exports, believing that China’s acquisition of the Blackwell could threaten the U.S.’s dominance in the AI field.
However, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has been persuading President Trump that the modified version of the Blackwell, with somewhat reduced performance, should be used to target the Chinese market.