Nvidia to Resume Sales of Highly Desired AI Computer Chips to China

President and CEO of Nvidia Corporation Jensen Huang delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP)
President and CEO of Nvidia Corporation Jensen Huang delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Nvidia to Resume Sales of Highly Desired AI Computer Chips to China

President and CEO of Nvidia Corporation Jensen Huang delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP)
President and CEO of Nvidia Corporation Jensen Huang delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP)

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China.

The news came in a company blog post late Monday, which stated that the US government had "assured" Nvidia that licenses would be granted — and that the company "hopes to start deliveries soon." Shares of the California-based chipmaker were up over 4% by midday Tuesday.

Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run CGTN television network, in remarks shown on X.

"Today, I'm announcing that the US government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s," Huang told reporters in Beijing.

He added that half of the world's AI researchers are in China. "It's so innovative and dynamic here in China that it's really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here," he said.

Huang recently met with President Donald Trump and other US policymakers and is in Beijing this week to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials. The broadcast showed Huang meeting with Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, host of the China International Supply Chain Expo, which Huang was attending. Nvidia is an exhibitor.

Nvidia has profited enormously from the rapid adoption of AI, becoming the first company to have its market value surpass $4 trillion last week. However, the trade rivalry between the US and China has been weighing heavily on the industry.

Here's what we know.

What is Nvidia's H20 chip? The H20 graphics processing unit, or GPU, is an advanced AI chip — a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But it's less powerful than Nvidia's top semiconductors today.

That's because the H20 chip was developed to specifically comply with US restrictions for exports of AI chips to China. Nvidia's most advanced chips, which carry more computing power, are off-limits to the Chinese market.

Washington has been tightening controls on exports of advanced technology to China for years, citing concerns that know-how meant for civilian use could be deployed for military purposes. And in January, before Trump began his second term in office, President Joe Biden's administration launched a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used to develop AI in an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries.

Restrictions on sales of advanced chips to China have been central to the AI race between the world's two largest economic powers, but such controls are also controversial.

Proponents argue that these restrictions are necessary to slow China down enough to allow US companies to keep their lead. Meanwhile, opponents say the export controls have loopholes and could still spur innovation. The emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot in January particularly renewed concerns over how China might use advanced chips to help develop its own AI capabilities.

What's happened since Trump took office? In April, the White House announced that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China — as well as MI308 chips from rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices with the Trump administration again citing national security.

At the time, Nvidia said these tighter export controls would cost the company an extra $5.5 billion and Huang and other technology leaders have been lobbying Trump to reverse the restrictions since. They've argued that such limits hinder US competition in a sector in one of the world’s largest markets for technology, and have also warned that US export controls could end up pushing other countries toward China’s AI technology.

Monday's announcement from Nvidia signals that its lobbying efforts paid off. White House AI and crypto adviser David Sacks told Bloomberg on Tuesday that allowing Nvidia to restart Chinese sales of its H20 chip would help the US better compete abroad, particularly with Chinese chipmaker Huawei Technologies.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC on Tuesday that the renewed sale of H20 chips in China was linked to a trade agreement made between the two countries on rare earth magnets and maintained that the administration was also reversing course from April's restrictions because the US still doesn't sell China "our best stuff."

Still, calls for restrictions on advanced chip exports to China have persisted among US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Just last week, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks wrote a letter to Huang noting that the hardware powering advanced AI "is of immense strategic importance" and again warned that this kind of technology could be used to accelerate Beijing’s effort to modernize its military if exported freely. US lawmakers have also proposed that chips subject to export controls should be tracked, to ensure they don’t end up in the wrong places.

Beyond export controls, California-based Nvidia — like other tech giants today — has been caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariff wars abroad, particularly amid America's tit-for-tat levies with China. But Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China says it’s approving permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the US, while Washington has lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines.

Nvidia and its CEO have also garnered Trump’s favor in recent months. In April, the company announced that it would be producing its AI chips in the US for the first time, starting with more than one million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test its specialized Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.

Trump was quick to applaud Nvidia's move. He introduced Huang as a "smart cookie" who was helping bring jobs to the US at an "Investing in America" event held at the White House later that month.

Similar to Nvidia, AMD is now also poised to restart Chinese sales of its MI308 chips. The California-based company said in a statement that the Commerce Department was moving forward with license applications for these exports to China, and that it plans to resume shipments as those licenses are approved.



Musk Says He Plans to Sue Apple for Not Featuring X or Grok Among Its Top Apps 

Elon Musk is seen with a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Elon Musk is seen with a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Musk Says He Plans to Sue Apple for Not Featuring X or Grok Among Its Top Apps 

Elon Musk is seen with a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Elon Musk is seen with a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)

Billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X and its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot app in its top recommended apps in its App Store.

Musk posted the comments on X late Monday, saying, “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.”

Grok is owned by Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI.

Musk went on to say that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action.”

He gave no further details.

There was no immediate comment from Apple, which has faced various allegations of antitrust violations in recent years.

A federal judge recently found that Apple violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games.

Regulators of the 27-nation European Union fined Apple 500 million euros in April for breaking competition rules by preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store.

Last year, the EU fined the US tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music streaming service by forbidding rivals like Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps.

As of early Tuesday, the top app in Apple's App Store was TikTok, followed by Tinder, Duolingo, YouTube and Bumble. Open AI's ChatGPT was ranked 7th.