lucadelladora – The US government has approved the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI graphics chips to China under specific conditions. President Trump announced on Truth Social that Nvidia can ship its H200 products to approved Chinese customers while maintaining national security safeguards. He added that the US will receive a 25% share of sales to support American jobs, strengthen domestic manufacturing, and benefit taxpayers.
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Trump clarified that Nvidia’s Blackwell and Rubin GPUs are not included in the deal. The Department of Commerce is finalizing details, and similar arrangements could apply to AMD, Intel, and other US technology companies. Earlier, AMD and Nvidia agreed to give the US a 15% revenue share from AI chip sales to China. Intel also recently saw the US acquire a 10% stake.
Access to high-end GPUs and AI accelerators has been a key issue in US-China trade negotiations. Tariffs and restrictions have fluctuated over the years, creating uncertainty and spurring smuggling attempts. Nvidia’s H200 chip, based on the previous-generation Hopper architecture, is built on a 4nm process node. It offers 141GB of HBM3E memory and remains significantly faster than China-produced GPUs. TechPowerUp estimates the H200 can operate up to twice as fast as domestic alternatives.
The chip also provides direct access to Nvidia’s CUDA ecosystem, allowing developers to use advanced AI design and training tools. Despite efforts by Chinese authorities to promote domestic chip suppliers, Nvidia hardware continues to dominate in AI workloads. Chinese government mandates require at least 50% of AI inferencing tasks to use local chips.
Implications and Challenges for China’s AI Ambitions
Chinese firms face limits when relying on domestic chips for advanced AI tasks. The Cyberspace Administration of China previously flagged Nvidia’s H20 GPU as a potential security risk, though it had White House approval for sale. Attempts to force companies to switch from Nvidia to Huawei GPUs produced subpar results, leading developers to return to Nvidia hardware.
China’s domestic GPU supply chain is improving but remains behind US technology. For high-performance training and many inferencing tasks, Nvidia GPUs like H200 and upcoming Blackwell models are still superior. The revenue-sharing agreement provides the US government financial gain while giving Nvidia continued access to a major market.
This deal highlights ongoing tensions between national security and commercial interests in AI technology. Beijing may still purchase H200 chips to enhance its AI capabilities, but domestic alternatives will remain a strategic priority. Nvidia is likely to profit substantially from the sales, despite the 25% revenue share to the US.
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The agreement signals that advanced AI technology will remain globally contested. It also emphasizes the strategic role US policy plays in shaping international AI adoption. Observers will watch closely how China balances domestic chip development with reliance on foreign technology.
