Trump Authorizes Nvidia H200 Chip Exports to China

President Donald Trump announced in December 2025 that the United States would allow Nvidia to export H200 artificial intelligence chips to approved commercial customers in China and other countries. The policy requires a 25% fee paid to the U.S. government, collected as an import tax. This decision reversed restrictive policies from the Biden administration, though the most advanced Blackwell and Rubin chips remain prohibited to preserve a U.S. technological lead.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lobbied for the move, arguing that blocking advanced chips would accelerate China's domestic semiconductor industry. While the H200 is significantly more powerful than previously permitted models, the administration argues that allowing its sale keeps China dependent on the American tech stack. The United States Department of Commerce is finalizing similar arrangements for Intel and AMD.

The decision sparked a bipartisan outcry. Democratic senators and security experts warned the move could enhance China's military capabilities. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei likened the policy to "selling nuclear weapons to North Korea." Meanwhile, the Government of China initially hesitated, weighing the imports against its goal of semiconductor self-sufficiency, before eventually approving purchases of over 400,000 chips by ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent in February 2026.

Shipments have faced delays due to a multi-agency national security review involving the State, Defense, and Energy Departments. To combat smuggling, Nvidia developed optional location-verification software for its GPUs, though the Cyberspace Administration of China raised concerns about potential backdoors.