Trump Greenlights NVIDIA H20 Exports to China, NVDA Stock Soars to New Record
- Kimi
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
In a major policy reversal, the Trump administration has granted approval for Nvidia Corp to export its advanced H20 artificial intelligence chips to China, a move that sent Nvidia’s stock price surging to fresh all-time highs on Tuesday. The U.S. government has assured Nvidia that it will “grant licenses” for H20 shipments, allowing the chipmaker to soon resume deliveries to Chinese clients that had been halted under earlier trade curbs. Investors cheered the news: Nvidia shares jumped nearly 5% in morning trading, reaching record levels and lifting the broader tech sector in the process.
Nvidia Stock Soars on China Reopening
A smartphone displays the Nvidia logo on a computer motherboard in an illustration.
Financial markets responded swiftly. Nvidia’s stock leapt about 4–5% on the announcement, touching its highest price on record in intraday trading. Analysts hailed the export approval as a “major catalyst” for the company, noting that many had previously “written off” the chance of any meaningful revenue from China under the ban. The rally extended Nvidia’s remarkable run amid the AI boom – the Silicon Valley firm recently became the first publicly traded company to surpass a $4 trillion market valuation – and buoyed shares of other chipmakers with exposure to China. Rival AMD, for instance, saw its stock climb in tandem on hopes it too could resume sales to the Chinese market.
U.S. Eases AI Chip Export Curbs
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced late Monday that Washington will allow the company to “start shipping H20s” to China pending new Commerce Department licenses. In a company blog post, Nvidia said it is filing the applications and that the U.S. government “has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted”, with deliveries expected to begin soon. The breakthrough came just days after Huang personally made his case to President Donald Trump in Washington, and it coincided with Huang’s visit to Beijing this week for a supply-chain expo. Nvidia also revealed a new “China-compliant” chip – dubbed the RTX Pro – a lower-performance model designed to meet U.S. export rules while serving industrial AI needs in China. The White House did not immediately comment on the announcement.
The policy shift extends beyond Nvidia. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it was recently informed by the U.S. Department of Commerce that license applications to export its MI308 AI accelerators to China “will be moving forward for review,” with AMD planning to resume shipments as soon as those licenses are approved. AMD – which had forecast a $1.5 billion annual revenue hit from the U.S. export curbs – saw its shares rise on the news, as the company applauded the Trump administration’s progress in trade talks and commitment to U.S. AI leadership. Shares of AMD and other chip suppliers jumped alongside Nvidia’s, in a broad semiconductor rally fueled by hopes of regained access to China’s huge market.
April Export Ban and Its Costs
This U.S. green light comes after a period of harsher chip sanctions earlier this year. In April, Trump’s administration abruptly tightened export rules – effectively banning Nvidia’s H20 chips (and similar high-end processors) from being sold to China. Officials in Washington justified the move as necessary to prevent cutting-edge American AI hardware from bolstering China’s military capabilities. Nvidia warned that the ban would deal a massive blow to its business: the company had to write off roughly $5 billion in unsold inventory and estimated about $15 billion in potential future revenue would be lost as Chinese orders evaporated. Huang and other Silicon Valley executives pressed the White House to reconsider, arguing that blanket curbs on such a vital market would ultimately handicap U.S. tech competitiveness without significantly improving security.
Thaw in Tech Trade Tensions
The decision to relax chip export rules comes amid tentative improvements in U.S.-China relations on technology issues. Beijing recently loosened its own restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals – critical materials for electronics – while Washington quietly allowed certain U.S. chip design software and services to resume operations in China. Industry observers see these gestures as part of a broader thaw in the tech trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies. Indeed, U.S. negotiators had signaled during recent talks that some tech sanctions might be lifted to help resolve a damaging tariff standoff with Beijing. Still, American policymakers remain wary of China’s tech ambitions. Earlier this year, the emergence of a Chinese ChatGPT-like AI system (known as DeepSeek) renewed U.S. fears that advanced American chips could accelerate Beijing’s military AI development, underscoring the persistent tension between economic interests and security concerns.
National Security Concerns Persist
The export-policy shift has reignited debate over balancing national security and economic interests. Some in Washington argue that selling ultra-capable AI chips to China could aid Beijing’s armed forces – in fact, a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators wrote to Huang last week urging him not to meet with any Chinese firms linked to the People’s Liberation Army or intelligence services. But industry leaders like Huang counter that overly broad curbs risk backfiring. He has warned that sweeping U.S. export blocks would only spur China to develop its own advanced chips faster, ultimately undermining America’s lead in AI. This dilemma places companies like Nvidia in a tricky position. “Nvidia’s story and its position is shared by countless American corporates caught in the crosshairs of the U.S.-China geopolitical competition,” observed Ryan Fedasiuk, a former State Department tech adviser, noting that Nvidia is uniquely important to both the global economy and U.S. national security.
China Reacts, Eyes Self-Reliance
Chinese companies were quick to react to Nvidia’s reprieve. Major tech firms such as ByteDance and Tencent are already scrambling to place new orders for H20 chips, which Nvidia is processing through an “approved list” system for Chinese buyers. According to early reports, eager customers in China have lined up to snap up Nvidia’s semiconductors as the ban lifts. At a press briefing in Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson – asked about Nvidia – reiterated China’s opposition to the “politicization” and “weaponization” of technology trade, a thinly veiled criticism of the earlier U.S. chip curbs. Huang himself has emphasized how crucial the Chinese market is for the tech industry, calling China “so innovative and dynamic” and noting that “half of the world’s AI researchers are in China,” underscoring why Nvidia and other U.S. firms prize access to the country.
Beijing, meanwhile, has been redoubling efforts to cultivate its own semiconductor industry. Domestic giants like Huawei are racing to develop indigenous AI chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia, and the government is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into homegrown chip R&D in a bid to eventually replace U.S. suppliers. Experts point out that Chinese firms remain dependent on Nvidia in the near term but are diversifying their suppliers to guard against future U.S. restrictions.
“China continues to be dependent on Nvidia… but the company is dispensable in China,” Fedasiuk noted, given Beijing’s massive investments in Nvidia’s would-be rivals. In other words, the current opening for Nvidia could be fleeting if China succeeds in building viable alternatives. For now, however, Nvidia’s H20 chips are still considered essential by Chinese tech titans – and the U.S. decision to allow their export marks a significant, if delicate, step in the ongoing high-tech détente between Washington and Beijing.