The Trump administration has reversed its plans to tighten export controls on Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China, reportedly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week.
The planned export controls on the H20 chips, which are the most advanced AI processor legally exportable to China under current U.S. regulations, had been under development for months, according to NPR, citing two sources. These restrictions were potentially going to be implemented as early as this week.
The change in plans came after Nvidia promised the Trump administration new U.S. investments in AI data centers. This development was reported by NPR, which also stated that the White House and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The consideration to limit shipments of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China began during the Biden administration. In January, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was considering tightening restrictions on the sales of these chips, which are designed for the China market.
There was a significant surge in orders for the H20 chip due to booming demand from Chinese AI companies, such as DeepSeek, which offers low-cost AI models. According to a report by the Information last week, Chinese companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group, and Tencent Holdings have placed at least $16 billion in orders for Nvidia’s H20 server chips in the first three months of the year.
In late January, two U.S. lawmakers, Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, called for increased restrictions on exports of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips. This call came as the Trump administration was considering the tightening of export controls.
