US Authorizes Nvidia to Export Advanced H200 AI Chips to China

• The Commerce Department has approved Nvidia H200 shipments to verified customers in China.
• The U.S. will receive 25% of the proceeds from the export contracts.
• The Trump administration’s decision came in conflict with a Senate initiative to ban such shipments.

The U.S. Commerce Department has authorized Nvidia to resume exporting advanced H200 chips to China, AP writes. Deliveries will be sent only to verified commercial customers, and the U.S. government will receive 25% of the revenues from these sales.

The company will only be able to export H200s that are more than 18 months old. Those models are significantly more powerful than the H20, which Nvidia designed specifically for the export restrictions.

Nvidia said it welcomed the decision to allow “the U.S. chip industry to compete” and called the approach “balanced.”

The export approval came a week after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the issue was under review by President Donald Trump. In doing so, the decision clashes with the stance of the US Congress, where both parties favor tighter controls on shipments of AI chips to China.

Senators Pete Ricketts and Chris Coons introduced the SAFE bill, which would ban export licenses for advanced processors for more than two years. Amid the Trump administration’s decision, the fate of the bill remains uncertain and no timetable for a vote has yet been set.

U.S.-China chip relations remain strained. The Trump administration imposed new licensing requirements in April 2025 and later repealed the Biden Diffusion Rule.

In the summer, the White House signaled that exports would become possible as long as the government was paid 15% of the proceeds.

Chinese retaliation followed the restrictions. In September, China’s Cyberspace Administration banned local companies from buying Nvidia, forcing the market to switch to chips from Huawei and Alibaba.

Trump later said that Chinese President Xi Jinping “reacted positively” to the decision to supply H200.