With Trump’s Green Light, Nvidia Scores U.S. License to Export H20 AI Chips to China

Nvidia, already under pressure after April’s export ban, has now secured a remarkable turnaround: the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, met with President Trump, and just days later, the U.S. Commerce Department began issuing licenses for the export of the H20 chip to China—a processor specially designed to meet U.S. regulatory constraints.This signals not only a retreat from Trump-era restrictions but a calculated move to regain a vital portion of the Chinese AI market.

Meanwhile, in a highly unusual twist, Nvidia (alongside AMD) agreed to pay 15% of their Chinese chip–sale revenues to the U.S. government in exchange for these export licenses—a deal that raises eyebrows among trade and constitutional experts. On the Chinese side, state media has fired back, warning that the H20 chips may harbor backdoors and pose security threats—claims Nvidia firmly denies, as tensions continue to mount in the tech and geopolitical arenas.