Overview

• The Commerce Department has committed to grant export licenses for Nvidia’s mid-end H20 GPUs after high-level lobbying and rare-earth mineral trade concessions with Beijing.
• Nvidia filed applications for Chinese shipments but warns that on-hand H20 stock is scarce and no new production lines will be restarted, risking months-long delivery delays.
• The April export curbs forced Nvidia to cancel TSMC production slots, resulting in $4.6 billion in pre-ban revenue and roughly $2.5 billion in blocked sales.
• Representative John Moolenaar and other congressional leaders are urging tougher, performance-tied export controls to prevent China from advancing its AI and military capabilities.
• Chinese industry commentators caution that the H20’s reduced performance could act as a “poisoned wine,” hindering domestic chip innovation even as firms rely on U.S. technology.