The Trump administration is weighing whether to allow NVIDIA to sell its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, according to people familiar with the internal discussions. The review comes as Washington and Beijing try to stabilize ties after a prolonged trade and technology conflict. Officials see the decision as a key test of how far the United States will go in reopening advanced technology exports to China. Businesses on both sides watch the talks closely because chip access shapes AI development.
The U.S. Commerce Department oversees export controls and now studies a possible change to its current policy, which bars H200 sales to Chinese buyers. Sources say officials have not reached a final decision and could still keep existing restrictions. A White House official declined to discuss the review but said the administration wants to protect U.S. technology leadership while guarding national security interests.
Hawks in Washington warn that more powerful AI chips in Chinese hands could strengthen Beijing’s military capabilities. They argue that advanced data center chips help train sophisticated models for surveillance, cyber operations, and weapons systems. Those concerns led the previous Biden administration to impose strict limits on high-end chip shipments to China.
Trump officials face a different strategic landscape but still confront the same security questions. Beijing uses its own export controls on rare earth minerals and other critical inputs as leverage in the technology contest. Earlier this year, Trump threatened broader tech export and AI chip restrictions in response, yet he later eased several of those measures. The H200 decision now sits at the center of this broader tug-of-war.
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NVIDIA unveiled the H200 chips two years ago as an upgrade to its H100 data center processor. The H200 includes more high-bandwidth memory, which lets data centers train and run AI models more quickly and efficiently. Industry estimates suggest that the H200 delivers roughly twice the performance of NVIDIA’s H20 chips, the most advanced processor that current rules still allow in the Chinese market.
Executives at NVIDIA say export limits prevent the company from offering a truly competitive data center product in China. As a result, Chinese firms increasingly buy from rival suppliers that face fewer restrictions, eroding NVIDIA’s market share in one of the world’s largest AI markets.
The Commerce Department recently cleared shipments of up to 70,000 next-generation Blackwell chips to partners in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That contrast highlights how US policy now encourages some overseas sales of cutting-edge AI hardware while it still weighs how far to open the door to China.