UNCERTAIN CHIP EXPORT CONTROLS
The second Trump administration has swung back and forth on allowing Nvidia’s advanced chips into China, vacillating on whether access would make its superpower rival more dependent on the US technology or give its military and tech companies a competitive boost.
In April, it ordered Nvidia to stop sales of the H20 chip, made specifically for the Chinese market, prompting the company to prepare a less powerful version that was nevertheless based on its newest Blackwell architecture.
Washington lifted the H20 sales ban three months later as part of negotiations with China on rare earths exports.
Trump also said in August he would allow Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for the US government receiving a 15 per cent cut of the company’s sales of some advanced chips in that country, opening the door to allowing the firm to sell more powerful chips than the H20 model.
But even after the revenue sharing deal, Nvidia said it has not sent any H20 chips to China, as the US has yet to come up with rules on how to get the payment and China has discouraged domestic firms from purchasing the California-based company’s chips.
