US President Donald Trump has relaxed the ban on selling Nvidia’s H20 chips to China, allowing 15% revenue share from Chinese customers. The move is a reversal of earlier this year’s ban on all H20 sales to China.
The decision comes after meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who argued that China’s access to H20s doesn’t pose a risk to US national security. However, the Trump administration had previously seen the chips as a threat to prevent China from developing advanced artificial intelligence first.
Researcher Graham Webster at Stanford University found that several key officials in Biden’s White House and Commerce Department believed AI was approaching an “inflection point” that could give nations major military and economic advantages. The Biden team decided to take action, unveiling export controls aimed at preventing China from accessing advanced chips for training AI systems and modernizing its own chipmaking industry.
The move has influenced several prominent officials, including Jason Matheny and Tarun Chhabra, who now lead influential think tanks on national security and AI policy. Some, like Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, argue that export controls won’t prevent China from gaining market share globally. The debate over Nvidia’s H20 chips highlights the complexities of US-China relations in the tech industry.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/nvidia-chips-export-controls-trump-h20-security