The US government has given chip giant Nvidia the green light to sell its advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors in China, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.
The H200, Nvidia’s second-most advanced semiconductor, was banned by Washington over concerns it would give China’s technology industry and military an edge over the US.
The Commerce Department said the chips could be shipped to China provided there was an adequate supply of processors in the US.
President Donald Trump said last month he would allow chip sales to “approved customers” in China and charge a 25% fee.
The BBC has contacted Nvidia for comment.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said its revised export policy applies to Nvidia’s H200 chips as well as less advanced processors.
The H200 chip is a generation behind Nvidia’s Blackwell processor, which is considered the world’s most advanced AI semiconductor and is blocked from sale in China.
Nvidia is caught in the geopolitical tug of war between two sides of the global AI race – the US and China.
Trump reversed the chip-sales ban last July, but demanded that Nvidia pay a cut of its earnings from China to the US government.
Beijing reportedly ordered its tech companies to boycott Nvidia’s China-bound chips and prioritize domestically made semiconductors. The move was designed to boost China’s tech industry, although experts have consistently said the country’s chips still lag behind the US.
Through 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang consistently lobbied Washington to allow sales of the firm’s high-powered chips to China, arguing that global market overcrowding is essential to America’s competitiveness.
However, some officials in the US have expressed concerns that the chips would benefit Beijing’s military and harm US progress in AI development.