US Department of Commerce approves export of NVIDIA H200 chips to China

The US government has announced plans to partially relax export restrictions on NVIDIA's H200 AI chip, which is expected to allow exports of the H200 to China.

Commerce to open up exports of Nvidia H200 chips to China | Semafor
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/08/2025/commerce-to-open-up-exports-of-nvidia-h200-chips-to-china

Department of Commerce approves Nvidia H200 chip exports to China | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/08/department-of-commerce-may-approve-nvidia-h200-chip-exports-to-china/

US to allow Nvidia H200 chip shipments to China, Trump says | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-open-up-exports-nvidia-h200-chips-china-semafor-reports-2025-12-08/

The United States has restricted the export of high-performance AI chips to China, and initially sought a compromise by allowing the export of a lower-performance version of the H200 called the 'H20.'

However, China responded by ordering domestic companies to stop purchasing H20, citing security concerns. This ban gave domestic companies like Huawei a breathing space to compete with H20, and domestically produced products benefited.

China reportedly bans foreign-made AI chips from state-run data centers - GIGAZINE

In addition, China has demonstrated that it can create high-performance AI like DeepSeek even with relatively low-performance chips, and is steadily expanding its market share in chips for devices that do not require advanced processing, such as home appliances. Some U.S. government officials have deemed China's unconcerned attitude toward restrictions a victory for Chinese companies, and have decided to review the restrictions.

As a compromise, President Donald Trump announced that he would allow the export of H200 to China, hoping to increase America's market share by selling H200 to China, with the United States taking a 25% cut of sales.

President Trump announced that 'President Xi Jinping responded positively to this measure.'

NVIDIA has already developed chips with higher performance than the H200, but these are still not allowed to be exported. The US is trying to strengthen its domestic manufacturing capabilities by offering preferential treatment for the construction of domestic factories and working to reduce its over-reliance on foreign companies such as TSMC.

Greg Allen of the Wadhwani Center for AI at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia Subcommittee, 'If the Joe Biden administration had not blocked the export of advanced AI chips, it is highly likely that the world's first million-chip AI cluster would have been built in China rather than the United States. China has many advantages in the AI race, but the gap in computing resources is the biggest advantage the United States has over China. Two executives from major Chinese AI companies have stated clearly that the difficulty of obtaining advanced AI chips is their biggest challenge.' He argued that 'chip export restrictions are crucial to maintaining America's advantage in the AI race.'