Thought Leadership
After months of export restrictions, the US tech giant Nvidia is once again allowed to sell its AI chips designed for China in the People’s Republic.
“I am announcing that the US government has granted us approvals to apply for licenses to ship H20,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Chinese journalists. Nvidia will therefore start selling H20 chips on the Chinese market again, he explained.
The decision follows an agreement in the ongoing trade dispute between China and the USA to reduce mutual restrictions. The exact content of the agreement is still unknown. Washington wanted the Chinese to relax their export controls on rare earths, which are important for the industry. In return, Beijing demanded that the USA once again allow the export of important technology on which China depends.
Huang on a visit to China
Huang had previously spoken with President Donald Trump in the US capital Washington about artificial intelligence, among other things, according to Nvidia. In Beijing, Huang has now met representatives from the government and industry on the same topic, it was reported.
Since April, Trump has imposed export restrictions on the high-capacity H20 chips. Even under his predecessor Joe Biden, the USA created hurdles for the sale of the most modern high-performance chips to China. Nvidia was therefore only able to supply a slower version of the H20.
Before Trump’s restrictions, Nvidia sold H20 chips worth 4.5 billion dollars to China. Nvidia emphasizes that it is technically impossible to make the current chips even smaller in order to meet the export requirements. The Biden administration had also justified its action with the concern that China’s military could gain access to powerful chips through Nvidia’s high-tech products.
dpa
