After Donald Trump’s declaration on the Truth Social platform to request China’s President Xi Jinping to ‘open up’ China, the U.S. approved export licenses for 10 Chinese enterprises. As a result, authorising the purchase of NVIDIA’s H200 AI chips.
Earlier today, the Trump administration issued clearance for Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com, Lenovo, and Foxconn, among the 10 authorised.
However, this significant deal may still be up in the air, as not a single delivery has been administered so far, according to Reuters.
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House confirmed that Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, would be accompanying Trump on his first Presidential visit to China.
A source told Reuters that Huang was not initially listed in the White House delegation to Beijing but joined the U.S. contingent upon an invitation from President Trump. The NVIDIA founder was collected in Alaska en route to the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The trip was intended to revive the hindered plans to sell H200 chips, the second-most powerful AI chip by NVIDIA in China.
Sources told Reuters that buyers are now permitted to purchase either directly from Nvidia or through those intermediaries. And each approved customer can purchase up to 75,000 chips under the U.S. licensing terms.
However, deliveries are stalled owing to Chinese enterprises waiting for guidance from Beijing. Concerns over political and regulatory risks may also cause delays.
What is NVIDIA’s H200 AI Chip?
Hailed as the “second-most powerful AI chip”, NVIDIA’s H200 is highly acclaimed for its generative AI supercharging abilities. Additionally, it allegedly boosts high-performance computing (HPC) workloads with transformational performance and memory capabilities as per NVIDIA.
“As the first GPU with HBM3E, the H200’s larger and faster memory fuels the acceleration of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) while advancing scientific computing for HPC workloads,” the AI giant stated.
With the green light on H200, AI firms such as NVIDIA gain access to China’s vast scale AI market. At the same time, the U.S. remains in control of highly sensitive military-capable technologies.
US-China Rivalry Stalls AI Chip Trade
The NVIDIA President accompanied President Trump on this official visit to China, seeking a breakthrough to expand the robust AI chips trade in the country.
The US-China trade rivalry at its peak last year stalled NVIDIA AI chip sales because of high tariffs, a long approval process, and a push by Beijing to promote homegrown chips.
According to Congress.gov, the US-China two-way tariff rates reached a high of 164 per cent (U.S.) and 146 per cent (PRC) in mid-April 2025. Average rates fell to 49 per cent (U.S.) and 31 per cent (PRC) in May and August 2025, when both sides reduced "reciprocal tariffs" to 10 per cent for 90 days.
Despite the clearance, AI chip deliveries seem to be at a standstill. The US-China technology race is causing conflicts not just for the illicit trade but also for authorised commercial deals.
It seems that NVIDIA has been caught in the crossfire between the two largest economies in the world.
When AI Chips Drive Diplomacy
Trump’s Beijing visit makes Nvidia central to US-China bargaining, tying advanced GPU access and export rules to wider trade outcomes.
The crux of the international trade conflict points towards the country's goals. The U.S. vies to preserve and strengthen national security and limit China’s AI progress. Meanwhile, China aims to access advanced technology for national growth and maintain autonomy in advancing its semiconductor industry.
The dominant chipmaker controlled roughly 95 per cent of China’s advanced chip industry; however, this was before the U.S. tariffs were made stringent.
Reuters also reported that China, in fact, generated 13 per cent of NVIDIA’s total sales. This shows the critical importance of NVIDIA’s business in the PRC.
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Why is China Critical for AI Commerce?
Huang in the past projected China’s AI market to have the spending power worth at least $50 billion on AI technology this year. This presents a massive opportunity for NVIDIA’s business if access is granted.
For Nvidia, the goal is to recover billions of dollars in potential revenue and maintain relationships with major Chinese cloud and AI companies that are rapidly expanding their computing infrastructure.
According to a report titled, AI Chip Market by Chip Type, Function, Processing Type, Application, and End-use - Global Forecast to 2036, global: The global AI chip market has been projected to reach a whopping USD 670.2 billion by 2026 from USD 87.6 billion in 2026. This projection is at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.6 per cent during the forecast period (2026-2036).
Now that the U.S. has approved export licenses for the 10 Chinese firms to buy US AI chips, including NVIDIA, anticipation for expansion is likely.
The U.S. export licenses allow the firms to legally buy US AI chips with some restrictions.
According to Bloomberg, U.S. rules issued in January require Chinese buyers to demonstrate they had installed “sufficient security procedures” and would not use the chips for military purposes. NVIDIA must also certify sufficient inventory in the U.S.
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With the new deal, the trade licenses limit the number of chips that Chinese firms receive. For instance, limitations on shipment quantities and requirements that the chips be used only for approved commercial purposes, such as cloud computing and AI services.
The licenses also require compliance checks and monitoring. This allows the U.S. government to track where the chips go and reduce the risk of them being redirected to military, surveillance, or supercomputing projects that are restricted under U.S. export-control rules.
In practice, these conditions mean that sales are allowed, but they are closely supervised. The U.S. government can delay, change, or cancel these sales if political or security concerns arise.
So far, Lenovo has openly confirmed as one of the companies approved to sell H200 in China as part of NVIDIA’s export license.
Huang told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday that he hoped Trump and Xi would use their meeting in Beijing to strengthen relations between the two countries.
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