Donald Trump has opened the door for Nvidia to resume selling high-end AI chips to China, reversing a major pillar of US export controls and delivering a significant win for the company and its chief executive, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the administration.
Until Monday, Nvidia was barred from selling its most advanced processors to China on national-security grounds. Trump announced on Truth Social that the US will now allow the company to ship its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China and other markets under conditions designed to maintain “strong National Security”. He said Chinese president Xi Jinping “responded positively” to the decision.
Trump added that the Department of Commerce is finalising the terms, and suggested the same permissions could be extended to AMD and Intel. The H200 is Nvidia’s second-most powerful chip and far more capable than the H20, a scaled-down model designed to comply with US rules but later banned anyway in April.
The president also said the US would take 25% of the proceeds from these sales — up from a previously discussed 15% — reflecting a controversial pattern of moves in which his administration seeks a direct financial stake in private commercial deals. Lawmakers have questioned whether such arrangements are legal.
Opposition in Congress has already surfaced. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim last week urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to block sales of advanced chips to China, warning that they could support Beijing’s surveillance, censorship and military capabilities. Warren also called for Huang to testify before Congress under oath.
Huang has maintained close ties with Trump since his inauguration, meeting him several times and attending administration-led AI summits. Nvidia has pledged $500bn of US AI-infrastructure investment over the next four years. At the same time, Huang has frequently travelled to China for discussions with officials and tech leaders as export restrictions were tightened and loosened.
Nvidia previously held 95% of China’s AI-chip market before US controls slashed its revenue there “to zero”, a shift Huang has called a “strategic mistake”. For Nvidia — now valued at $4.5tn — renewed access to China, the world’s second-largest economy, could translate into billions of dollars in extra revenue.
Nvidia said it “applauds President Trump’s decision”, calling the approval process — in which customers are vetted by the Department of Commerce — a “thoughtful balance” that benefits the US.
Trump, for his part, attacked the Biden administration’s earlier export rules, declaring: “That Era is OVER! My Administration will always put America FIRST.”
China has yet to officially respond. Analysts in state media framed the years of US export restrictions as having accelerated China’s own chip-development push, giving domestic firms a rare opportunity to close the technology gap.
