Washington has taken a sharp turn on tech policy toward China. US President Donald Trump announced Monday that Nvidia will be allowed to export its high-powered H200 artificial intelligence chip to China, reversing years of restrictive controls and signalling a shift from containment to commercial competition.
Trump said he informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of the decision, which will allow exports to “approved customers” under national security conditions. In return, 25 percent of revenue from those sales will go to the US government. Similar arrangements, he said, could apply to AMD and Intel.
“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Nvidia welcomed the decision, calling it a “thoughtful balance” that keeps US industry competitive. Its stock climbed more than 2 percent in after-hours trading.
The move breaks from the Biden-era model that forced Nvidia and other firms to design weaker chips specifically for China. Trump criticised that approach, claiming US companies poured billions into products “nobody wanted”.
The H200, launched in 2023, is Nvidia’s most capable chip short of the latest Blackwell series, which will remain off-limits to China. It is nearly six times faster than the H20 model tailored for export restrictions. Under an earlier deal reached in August, Nvidia already pays Washington 15 percent of revenue from H20 sales.
Analysts say the policy signals a pragmatic shift. Tilly Zhang of Gavekal Dragonomics said the decision reflects lobbying by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and a growing recognition that blocking China’s tech rise is no longer feasible. The priority, she said, is “moving away from purely blocking or slowing China’s tech progress, more towards competing for market share and securing the commercial benefits of selling their own tech solutions”.
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