Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are set to resume the sale of artificial intelligence chips to China, following a three-month halt triggered by stringent U.S. export controls. The Department of Commerce´s move earlier in the year banned not just high-end graphics processing units but also the companies´ scaled-down chips, crippling their access to the world´s second-largest economy for artificial intelligence hardware. This decision had a significant financial impact, effectively halving Nvidia´s China revenue, with both companies projecting substantial quarterly charges as a result.
To comply with the 2022 export controls, Nvidia introduced the H20, a slower version of its high-performance H100 data center accelerator, while AMD released the MI308, both designed to stay within regulatory thresholds. Despite these adaptations, additional restrictions imposed in April 2025 demanded special licenses for even these cut-down products. Today´s reversal by the U.S. government will allow Nvidia and AMD to once again export these chips, pending license approvals—a prospect greeted enthusiastically by investors, seen in the 3.9% and 5.6% increases in Nvidia and AMD´s stock prices, respectively, during the day´s trading.
Nvidia announced it is actively filing for export licenses, with assurances from U.S. authorities that approvals are forthcoming, aiming to restart deliveries shortly. The company also teased a new processor, the RTX PRO, described as ´fully compliant´ for export, aimed at applications such as digital twin artificial intelligence for manufacturing and logistics sectors. Industry analysts, including Hargreaves Lansdown, anticipate this development could boost Nvidia’s revenue by several billion dollars this year, depending on the pace of export license approvals and manufacturing capacity. Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent are reportedly preparing to place substantial orders as customers in China rush to secure fresh supplies of the H20 chip.
