Overview
- The Commerce Department is reportedly preparing to permit exports of Nvidia H200 GPUs to China, a move described as a compromise using hardware about 18 months behind Nvidia’s cutting edge.
- The reported plan aims to preserve U.S. market share and technology standards after China rejected the less powerful H20 chips, which previously undercut a narrower export compromise.
- Semafor reports the policy has the support of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, though the department and Nvidia did not comment on the unannounced plan.
- The Secure and Feasible Exports Act would require a 30-month halt on licenses for the newest chips to adversaries including China and Russia, following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s meetings with President Trump and Senate Banking Committee members.
- Analysts note Nvidia remains the default for large-scale AI training even as Chinese firms advance in inference and pursue workarounds such as Singapore intermediaries, foreign compute leasing, and other channels that blunt formal controls.