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Nvidia has said the Trump administration has relaxed restrictions on exporting a key artificial intelligence product designed specifically for the Chinese market, saying it hoped to resume deliveries of its H20 chip “soon”.
The US chipmaker on Tuesday said it had received assurances from the US government that it would approve licences for the H20.
In April, Nvidia said it expected to take a $5.5bn earnings hit as a result of Donald Trump’s move to stop China sales of the product, which had been designed to comply with a previous version of export controls on advanced semiconductors.
The assurances come after intense lobbying by the US chipmaker, warning that America risked forfeiting its leadership in AI to Chinese companies, including Huawei, by cutting off exports of critical technology.
“We believe that every civil model should run best on the US technology stack, encouraging nations worldwide to choose America,” Nvidia’s chief Jensen Huang said in a statement on Tuesday.
Huang is in Beijing meeting government officials and Chinese customers this week to give them an update on how it plans to address the local market. The trip follows a meeting between Huang and President Trump, when the company said Nvidia’s commitment to investing in manufacturing in the US was discussed.
Nvidia also announced plans to release a new gaming graphic processing unit (GPU) for the Chinese market that is compliant with US export controls. Last week, the FT reported news of Nvidia’s plans to release an updated chip designed for China, based on its Blackwell RTX Pro 6000 processor.
Nvidia’s gaming chips have become a popular option for developers to run small Al models, given difficulties purchasing the company’s chips tailored for bigger Al workloads.
Huang said the new chip could be used for applications including advanced manufacturing and logistics.
The White House and the US Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment.