Nvidia’s promised return to China with its H200 AI chip is still waiting for Washington to sign the paperwork.
Nearly two months after Donald Trump approved exports in return for a 25 per cent cut, the US government is still conducting a national security review before licences can be granted to Chinese customers.
Chinese buyers, accustomed to dealing with the US under Trump, are not placing H200 orders until they know whether licences will be awarded and what conditions will be attached. Some suppliers have paused production of key H200 components while Washington and Beijing drag their feet on approvals.
Apparently, when Trump agreed to permit H200 exports, he instructed his administration to conduct a national security review to ensure export licences were accompanied by appropriate conditions. In January, the Commerce Department issued a rule loosening H-2 B export restrictions to China, but it required the U.S. Departments of State, Defence, and Energy to review any licenses.
The commerce department has completed its analysis, according to one person familiar with the situation. Several people briefed on the interagency wrangling said the State Department is pushing for tougher limits to make it harder for China to use H200 chips in ways that could undermine US national security.
One person told the FT that the state department’s posture was getting on Nvidia’s nerves.
The December agreement, which applies to AMD, gives the US a 25 per cent cut of sales and sets strict criteria for licence approvals. Conditions include a requirement that half of all shipments go to US customers, mandatory third-party testing by US laboratories, and reporting requirements on end use.
Beyond that, people familiar with the process said there is a bigger question hanging over everything. Chinese companies would need to guarantee to Nvidia that the chips will not be used for military purposes.
People familiar with the state department’s stance said the whole thing is messier than a normal licence review because of Trump’s odd sequencing. He agreed to the exports first, then asked officials to work out the conditions afterwards.
Huang lobbied the White House extensively last year to unwind long-standing export bans, warning that they would give domestic competitors such as Huawei an advantage. Many US national security experts have dismissed that line, and Trump’s Nvidia deal triggered resistance from his own supporters.
The H200 is one of Nvidia’s more advanced AI chips, but it still sits a generation behind its latest Blackwell hardware
Even if some sales go through, Chinese tech groups will not be allowed to ship H200 chips to data centres outside China, which cramps their global plans. Companies such as Alibaba and ByteDance currently access Nvidia AI kits outside China by leasing capacity from third-party data centres.
The ability to build their facilities inside China with compliant H200s would widen their options and reduce reliance on those third parties. People familiar with the planning said Chinese companies are drawing up alternative plans for sourcing AI chips because they cannot bank on large volumes of H200s arriving.
AMD chief executive Lisa Su told analysts on Tuesday that the company is also still waiting for US licences to ship its MI325X chip under the December deal. Nvidia, AMD and the state department declined to comment.
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