The Trump administration has backed off from its plan to ban the export of Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China. The move comes amid growing demand from Chinese tech firms and after Nvidia promised fresh investments in AI infrastructure in the US, according to media reports.
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The Trump administration has changed its decision to block the export of Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China, NPR reported on Wednesday. The reversal came after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week.
According to NPR, the US had been planning the export restrictions for months. The H20 chip is the most advanced AI processor that can legally be sold in China under current US rules, and the restrictions were set to take effect as early as this week.
According to NPR, the Trump administration changed its plans after Nvidia promised to invest in new AI data centres in the US.
Neither the White House nor Nvidia responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Back in January, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was considering stricter limits on Nvidia’s H20 chip sales to China. The idea of restricting these chips had already been under review during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
In February, Reuters reported a spike in H20 chip orders, driven by strong demand for affordable AI models from Chinese startup DeepSeek.
Chinese tech giants like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have reportedly placed over $16 billion worth of orders for Nvidia’s H20 server chips in the first three months of this year, according to a report by The Information last week.
In late January, US lawmakers John Moolenaar (Republican) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (Democrat) called for tighter restrictions on the export of Nvidia’s AI chips.
With inputs from Reuters.
