Sales of a powerful Nvidia AI chip to China gets the greenlight, with conditions
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
The Trump administration placed new security requirements on Nividia’s semiconductor sales to China, but essentially greenlighted the export of its powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to Chinese buyers.
Nvidia must ensure that there is an adequate supply in the U.S., and the H200 chips must undergo a third-party review before being exported to China, according to new rules set by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. But the new rules lower the bar for exports.
China won’t be allowed to use the chips for military purposes and is not allowed to import more than 50% of the chips sold to U.S. customers.
“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” Nvidia told The Associated Press in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”
The new Commerce rules arrive just over a month after President Donald Trump said he’d allow Nvidia to sell the H200 to “approved customers” in China.
The H200 is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of the approved chips for export.
A group of Democratic senators has objected to sales in China, saying that the chips could aid China’s military, help China carry out more effective cyberattacks against the U.S. and strengthen China’s economic and manufacturing sector.
The approval of the licenses to sell Nvidia H200 chips reflects the increasing power and close relationship that the company’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, enjoys with the president. But there have been concerns that China will find ways to use the chips to develop its own AI products in ways that could pose national security risks for the U.S., a primary concern of the Biden administration which had sought to limit exports.
In August Nvidia and AMD agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China with the U.S. government, as part of a deal to secure export licenses for the semiconductors.