US says Nvidia’s H200 exports to China remain ‘trivial’ despite approvals

US Commerce official Jeffrey Kessler told lawmakers that Nvidia has shipped only a 'very small quantity' of H200 AI chips to mainland China and Hong Kong, calling the exports 'trivial' despite approvals granted by the Trump administration. The sales, approved for firms including Tencent and ByteDance, mark a shift in US-China AI chip export policy, though the older-generation H200 chips remain less advanced than the banned Blackwell line.

Advertisement US says Nvidia’s H200 exports to China remain ‘trivial’ despite approvals US commerce official Jeffrey Kessler says only a ‘very small quantity’ of AI chips have reached mainland China and Hong Kong so far 3-MIN READ3-MIN Lucy Quaggin /author/lucy-quaggin in New York American chipmaker Nvidia https://www.scmp.com/topics/nvidia?module=inline&pgtype=article has shipped “very few” H200 artificial intelligence AI chips to mainland China and Hong Kong, a top Trump administration official told lawmakers on Tuesday, marking the first deliveries since the United States approved such sales.US President Donald Trump https://www.scmp.com/topics/donald-trump?module=inline&pgtype=article cleared the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China in December, with the Commerce Department approving around 10 Chinese firms to purchase the powerful AI processors this year, including Tencent https://www.scmp.com/topics/tencent?module=inline&pgtype=article and ByteDance https://www.scmp.com/topics/bytedance?module=inline&pgtype=article .“For the American people, the bottom line is very few shipments against licenses for H200s and equivalents have taken place,” said Jeffrey Kessler, the US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “Very small quantity of chips, so it’s trivial,” he added. The sales of these chips mark a critical moment in the US-China AI competition https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3359746/us-china-ai-war-boils-down-contest-over-electricity?module=inline&pgtype=article , as Washington had previously sought to limit China’s access to America’s cutting-edge AI chips that could be used to advance Beijing’s military.The Trump administration greenlit Nvidia’s older-generation H200 chips, not the company’s most advanced Blackwell https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3331273/trump-says-nvidias-blackwell-ai-chip-not-other-people?module=inline&pgtype=article line, which remains strictly banned from direct export to China.Advertisement Select Voice Select Speed 1.00x