Catenaa, Friday, December 19, 2025- The Trump administration has launched a review that could result in the first shipments to China of Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chips.
Reuters reported that the US Commerce Department, which oversees export policy, has sent license applications for the chip sales to the State, Energy, and Defense Departments for review.
Those agencies have 30 days to weigh in, according to export regulations.
Trump this month said he would allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, with the US government collecting a 25% fee, and that the sales would help keep US firms ahead of Chinese chipmakers by cutting demand for Chinese chips.
The move drew fire from China hawks across the US political spectrum over concerns the chips would supercharge Beijing’s military and erode the US advantage in artificial intelligence.
Quoting an administration official, the report states that the review would be thorough and “not some perfunctory box we are checking.”
But under the regulations, the final decision rests with Trump.
The start of the inter-agency licensing review has not been reported previously. The Commerce Department and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A White House spokesperson did not comment on the review, but said “the Trump administration is committed to ensuring the dominance of the American tech stack – without compromising on national security.”
Shares of Nvidia rose 1% on Friday; the stock is up by over 30% so far this year.
Reuters reported last week that Nvidia was considering an increase in production of the H200, the immediate predecessor to its current flagship Blackwell chips, after initial orders from China outstripped the current capacity.
While the H200 chips are slower than Nvidia’s Blackwell chips at many AI tasks, they remain in wide use in the industry and have never been allowed for sale in China.
