Jensen Huang’s months-long offensive charm in Washington seems to be paying off. President Donald Trump gives permission for Nvidia to sell the H200 GPU, its second most powerful AI chip, to China, reversing the biden-era protection. The decision came after months of grumbling from Huang, who had been pushing to regain control of the company’s largest company.
“I made President XI, of the United States, that the United States will allow its H200 products to be sent to security customers throughout the country,” said Trump in Proup Photo Post yesterday (Dec. 8). Similar concessions will be given to AMD, Intel and other American processors, the president said.
NVIDIA was once only allowed to sell the H20 – a special GPU designed to comply with US-eChina export regulations. The H200 is six times more powerful than the H20, according to a recent report from the Institute for Advancement, and it is very different from the GPUS made by Chinese processors.
Nvidia was facing a trade blockade on both sides. The sale of H20 was banned by the Trump administration earlier this year, and the ban was later lifted. Chinese regulators have since moved to limit that revenue, and Beijing will impose a limit on sales of the H200, according to financial terms. Buyers in China will have to go through an approval process that requires them to explain why domestic suppliers cannot fulfill their needs.
The H200 remains slightly more powerful than Nvidia’s Blackwest Gravel Generation or upcoming ruby chips. Those high-tier products are not part of the China Agreement, Trump said, describing the approval of the H200 as one that would “support American jobs, strengthen American tax collectors.”
Nvidia welcomed the move. The decision “reflects a thoughtful role,” the company said in a statement. “We also welcome President Trump’s decision to allow the U.S. chip industry to compete to support high-paying and American-made jobs.”
But critics say the policy undermines US national security interests. “It’s hard to see how this will benefit national security, on the one hand, or technology on the other hand,” said a technology law expert at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, in a statement that raised the bar. “
Trump’s endorsement also appears to contain part of the bargain. The sale of the chip will see “$ 25%” paid in the US, said the president, without specifying which currency he finds that the percentage applies to. This summer, executives floated a similar deal in which Nvidia would give him 15 percent of its China Revenue for the China H20. The agreement failed to make the artificial objects.
The announcement caps months of successful lobbying by Huang, who has argued that Chinese AI companies should be required to build on American technology rather than alternatives. The CEO dismissed many of the 2025 closures between Washington and Beijing in an attempt to win support. China represents a $50 billion opportunity for nvidia that Huang said will grow by 50 percent a year. In August, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress estimated that the company could generate $ 2 billion to $ 5 billion per quarter from H20 Sales from H20 sales.
For now, Huang seems to have secured at least half of what he wants. He and Trump met in Washington as recently as last week to discuss export controls. The Nvidia CEO is a “smart man,” Trump told reporters after the meeting.
