U.S. mulls letting Nvidia sell H200 chips to China, sources say

In this Tuesday, May 30, 2017 photo, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a speech about AI and gaming during the Computex Taipei exhibition at the world trade center in Taipei, Taiwan. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

The Trump administration is considering greenlighting sales of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, people familiar with the matter said, as a bilateral detente boosts prospects for exports of advanced U.S. technology to China.

The U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees U.S. export controls, is reviewing a change to its policy of barring sales of such chips to China, the sources said, stressing that plans could change.

The White House and the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia did not comment directly on the review but said current regulation does not allow the company to offer a competitive AI data center chip in China, leaving that massive market to its rapidly growing foreign competitors.

The possibility signals a friendlier approach to China, after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping brokered a trade and tech war truce in Busan last month.

China hawks in Washington are concerned that shipments of more advanced AI chips to China could help Beijing supercharge its military, fears that prompted the Biden administration to set limits on such exports.

Faced with Beijing’s muscular use of export controls on rare earth minerals, critical for producing a raft of tech goods, Trump this year has threatened new restrictions on tech exports to China, but ultimately rolled them back in most cases.

The H200 chip, unveiled two years ago, has more high-bandwidth memory than its predecessor the H100, allowing it to process data more quickly.

It is estimated to be twice as powerful as Nvidia’s H20 chip, the most advanced AI semiconductor that can legally be exported to China, after the Trump administration reversed its short-lived ban on such sales earlier this year.

Earlier this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whom Trump has described as a “great guy,” was among the guests at the White House during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced this week it had approved shipments of the equivalent of up to 70,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips, Nvidia’s next-generation AI chip, to Saudi Arabia’s Humain and G42 of the United Arab Emirates.