The US government said the approval, which comes in exchange for a 25% surcharge, would also be available to other chipmakers like Intel and AMD.
President Trump said on Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to “approved customers” in China for a 25% surcharge.
The approval, which will also be available to chipmakers like Intel and AMD, comes after months of lobbying from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The more advanced Blackwell chip and the upcoming Rubin model are not part of the deal.
“I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday. “President Xi responded positively!” he added.
The decision opens a major market for Nvidia despite concerns that China could use the advanced semiconductors for military purposes.
The tiny chips are used to power a range of electronic devices from smartphones to medical equipment, and they’re essential to artificial intelligence processing.
Back in April, national security concerns led Trump to ban sales of the less advanced H20 chip to China, even though the chip had been designed to comply with Biden-era export curbs. In July, the president then walked back the decision after Nvidia agreed to pay 15% of its Chinese revenues to the US government. AMD signed a similar deal.
Nvidia's H200 is slightly less advanced than its Blackwell chip, considered to be the world’s most advanced AI semiconductor, although the H200 is at least a generation ahead of technology currently developed in China.
Critics of the US export bans, including Nvidia’s Huang, argue that instead of harming Chinese businesses, restrictions will benefit China’s AI ambitions in the long run. Local producers can’t currently keep up with domestic demand. If companies are therefore unable to access advanced foreign semiconductors, the homegrown industry will be forced to innovate. Such logic means Beijing has already discouraged state-affiliated firms against Nvidia adoption.
"Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America," Nvidia said in a statement. It added that the decision would also support high salaries and domestic manufacturing in the US.
A group of Democratic senators has nonetheless objected to the approval.
“Access to these chips would give China’s military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure, and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector," said a statement from the opposing senators.
They pointed to the fact that DeepSeek, a major Chinese AI company, recently said that the lack of access to advanced American-designed chips was its biggest challenge when competing with US-based AI companies.
