US President Donald Trump has granted permission for chip maker Nvidia to sell its powerful H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chip to China, a move seen as a major win for the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang. The approval follows months of haggling between tech industry backers and defense hawks over the sale.
Trump said in a social media post that the Commerce Department is finishing the details, and other companies like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel will be allowed to sell their chips to China as well. A portion of the chip revenue will go to the US government, but experts say this could violate US law.
The decision marks a departure from Trump’s initial promise to restrict AI chip sales to China, which drew bipartisan complaints from Congress. China has been working to become technologically self-reliant, improving its own AI chips and restricting imports of foreign technology.
The US and China recently agreed to ease trade tensions, but critics like Senator Elizabeth Warren say the administration is ignoring expert advice on national security concerns. The approval of the H200 chip sale could lead to challenges in China, given Beijing’s previous warnings about potential “backdoor security risks.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/business/trump-nvidia-chips-china.html