The U.S. Department of Commerce has authorised Nvidia to ship its advanced H200 artificial intelligence processors to China. This Tuesday announcement prioritises sufficient domestic supplies before any exports proceed.
Prior restrictions blocked the H200—Nvidia’s second-top AI chip—over fears of aiding China’s military and tech edge. The new licensing caps shipments at half of U.S. sales with verification checks.
President Donald Trump said last month that he would allow the chip sales to “approved customers” in China and collect a 25% fee.
Chinese buyers must enforce strict security and ban military use, rules extending to rivals like AMD’s MI325X. The H200 lags behind Nvidia’s peak Blackwell series, still barred from China.
Nvidia’s spokesperson told the BBC that the company welcomed the move, saying it will benefit manufacturing and jobs in the U.S.
Following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s 2025 lobbying amid U.S.-China AI rivalry, Beijing had favoured local chips and rejected Nvidia variants. Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told the BBC on Wednesday that Beijing has consistently opposed the “politicisation and weaponisation of tech and trade issues.”
“We oppose blocking and restricting China, which disrupts the stability of industrial and supply chains,” he said. “This approach does not serve the common interests of both sides.”
Trump reversed the chip-selling restriction last July, but demanded that Nvidia pay a cut of its earnings from China to the U.S. government.