Key Points
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with President Trump to lobby for the sale of H200 AI chips to China.
- Huang expressed uncertainty, stating he doesn’t know if China would even accept the chips if approved.
- The Trump administration is considering relaxing the export controls, but faces strong opposition from national security officials.
- China has previously rejected a less-powerful Nvidia chip, telling its companies to buy domestic products instead.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss relaxing U.S. restrictions on the sale of the company’s powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to China. Following the meeting, however, Huang admitted he has “no clue” if China would even accept the chips if a deal were allowed.
Huang has been a frequent visitor to Washington, forging a close relationship with Trump while arguing that strict U.S. export controls are backfiring. He claims the restrictions only push China to develop its own domestic champions, such as Huawei, rather than buying American technology. “We can’t degrade chips that we sell to China, they won’t accept that,” Huang told reporters.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering allowing H200 sales, a move that would be a significant win for Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company. For now, the decision rests with the President.
However, any easing of the rules faces sharp opposition from Washington’s national security hawks. Senator Elizabeth Warren warned in a letter that allowing the sales would “turbocharge China’s military and undercut American technological leadership.”
This isn’t the first time Nvidia has run into this problem. Earlier this year, the company won approval to sell a less-powerful chip, the H20, to China. But Beijing promptly told its domestic companies to shun the product in favor of homegrown alternatives.
Huang’s visit comes as Nvidia scored a lobbying victory in Congress, where lawmakers kept a provision that would have limited its sales to China out of a major defense bill.
