By Catherine Yang

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Dec. 8 that he told Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping the United States will allow exports of Nvidia H200 chips to approved customers in China “under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security.”

This will be the first time that AI chip designer Nvidia will be allowed to ship its Hopper line of AI chips without modifications to comply with U.S. export controls. Other U.S. chip companies will see similar restrictions lifted.

Trump wrote that Xi responded “positively.”

“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump wrote, adding that 25 percent of the sales will be paid to the United States.

Nvidia previously sold Chinese customers the H800, a degraded version of its H100 chip. The H200 chip is an upgrade of the H100.

Trump criticized policies that he said forced American companies to spend billions in making “‘degraded’ products that nobody wanted.”

“That Era is OVER! We will protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America’s lead in AI,” Trump wrote, defending the major change in policy. “The Department of Commerce is finalizing the details, and the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies.”

He noted that Nvidia’s more advanced Blackwell line, and the Rubin slated for 2026 release, will not be meant for export to China.

U.S. export controls put technical limits on what chips could be exported to China, with licenses required for some exports and sales. U.S. lawmakers have pointed out that many Chinese companies, including those blacklisted by the Pentagon, have circumvented U.S. regulations to acquire these chips by smuggling or other means.

They have introduced several bills to strengthen and codify existing restrictions this year, even as the Trump administration pushes forward with an AI diffusion approach meant to expand the presence of American AI technology in the world.

Some have said that even the H20, which Nvidia produced for China to comply with export controls, should not be sold to a foreign adversary nation. The Trump administration had announced a ban on the H20 earlier this year before reversing course. It prompted Chinese trade associations to promote the use of Chinese-made chips, but Chinese companies using AI are reliant on Nvidia chips. ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and DeepSeek all use H20 chips.

The Trump administration’s approach has the backing of AI companies, which were featured prominently in the president’s trip to the Middle East earlier this year, where deals centered on access to American AI and worth hundreds of billions were struck.