Nvidia’s path to selling advanced AI chips to China moved forward under new U.S. export-control rules, the Associated Press reported. The Trump administration placed new security requirements on semiconductor sales to China, but the changes effectively allowed Nvidia to export its H200 artificial intelligence chips to Chinese buyers, according to the report published Wednesday.
The new Commerce rules, issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security, require Nvidia to maintain an adequate supply of the chips in the United States, the Associated Press said. The rules also require the H200 chips to go through a third-party review before Nvidia can ship them to Chinese customers.
As part of the approvals, the rules limit how China can use the chips. China is not allowed to use the H200 chips for military purposes, and the rules also set a cap tied to U.S. sales—China cannot import more than 50% of the chips Nvidia sells to U.S. customers, the Associated Press reported.
Nvidia said it welcomed the decision. In a prepared statement to the Associated Press, the company said it “applaud[s] President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” and added that “Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”
The approvals follow comments from President Donald Trump made just over a month earlier, when he said he would allow Nvidia to sell H200 to “approved customers” in China. In the same context, the Associated Press said the H200 is not Nvidia’s most advanced chip: Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin were not part of the approved list for export.
Democratic senators objected to the change, the Associated Press reported, saying the chips could help China’s military, strengthen China’s industrial and manufacturing capabilities, and potentially enable more effective cyberattacks against the United States. The report also noted that the approval reflects the growing influence in Washington of Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and his relationship with the president, while acknowledging that earlier concern had centered on how China might route the technology into its own AI products.
The Associated Press said the Biden administration had sought to limit exports, and that concerns remained that China could find ways to use the chips for development that could pose national-security risks for the United States. The report also pointed to a prior arrangement: in August, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China with the U.S. government as part of a deal aimed at securing export licenses.