The Donald Trump administration has initiated a formal review to authorise the export of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China.
According to reports, the scrutiny follow’s the US president’s recent nod, allowing the chipmaker to sell its second-most powerful AI chips to Beijing and the US government to collect a 25 percent fee.
The export will also help the US semiconductor industry to maintain its dominance by flooding China’s domestic markets and slowing down its own semiconductor development.
The greenlight drew ire from the lawmakers who argued that the sales of cutting-edge chips to China would upgrade Beijing’s military and artificial intelligence prowess.
Despite Trump’s nod, uncertainty prevails surrounding how quickly the US would approve such exports and how the Chinese government would respond to Nvidia H200 chips.
According to sources privy to matter, the US Commerce Department has sent license applications for the chip sales to the State, Energy and Defense Departments for review.
As per export regulations, the agencies will be entitled to take 30 days for decision-making. But the final decision rests with the President.
One source said, “The review process would be highly comprehensive and not some perfunctory box we are checking.”
A White House spokesperson commented, “The Trump administration is committed to ensuring the dominance of the American tech stack – without compromising on national security.”
Earlier this week, Chinese firms, including ByteDance and Alibaba expressed desire to order advanced Nvidia H200 AI chips, aiming to boost AI capabilities. Compared to H20, H200 is six times more powerful and advanced chip.
Prior to the Trump administration's approval, only H20 chips were legally allowed to be exported to China.
