President Donald Trump has approved shipments of Nvidia’s advanced H200 artificial intelligence chip to China, informing Chinese leader Xi Jinping of the decision. Exports will be allowed to “approved customers” and will require that 25 percent of related sales revenue be paid to the U.S. government, the administration said.
Trump said the policy framework could be extended to other chipmakers, including AMD and Intel, and framed the move as a boost for American jobs, manufacturing and taxpayers. Nvidia called the decision a “thoughtful balance” that would back high-paying jobs and U.S. manufacturing; the company’s shares rose more than 2 percent in after-hours trading.
The announcement marks a shift from the Biden administration’s tighter export limits, which had restricted China-bound products by forcing vendors to ship downgraded variants. Trump criticized that prior approach on Truth Social, saying it led companies to spend billions producing downgraded chips “nobody wanted.” He also said the most advanced Blackwell-series chips will remain off-limits to China.
Introduced in 2023, the H200 is Nvidia’s most capable accelerator below the Blackwell line; the Washington-based Institute for Progress estimates it is roughly six times more powerful than the earlier H20 model. Under an August agreement, Nvidia had agreed to remit 15 percent of H20 revenue from China-targeted sales to the U.S. government; the new arrangement sets different terms for the H200.
Analysts and industry observers say market pressures and lobbying influenced the change. Tilly Zhang of Gavekal Dragonomics described the move as a shift away from trying to block China’s technological progress toward competing for market share and securing commercial benefits for U.S. firms—an approach that could accelerate innovation on both sides.
The decision drew swift criticism from Democrats and national security experts. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the administration was “selling out U.S. security,” pointing to Department of Justice investigations into illegal chip smuggling and DOJ warnings that advanced chips are foundational to AI capabilities. Chris McGuire, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that loosening controls could help Chinese AI firms narrow the gap with leading U.S. models and enable widely deployed “good enough” data centers, undermining U.S. efforts to dominate the global AI technology stack.