【By Observer Net, Xiong Chaoran】Recently, Huang Renxun, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, dressed in his iconic leather jacket, embarked on his third visit to China this year, while also announcing that the U.S. has approved the export of H20 chips to China.
Regarding this sudden policy shift by the Trump administration, U.S. Commerce Secretary Rutenberg said during an interview with CNBC on July 15 that the U.S. easing of chip export controls was part of recent trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials in London and Geneva, with both sides aiming to ease trade tensions.
However, Rutenberg's remarks quickly revealed their true intentions, claiming that it is in the U.S. interest for Chinese companies to continue using American technology, and that the U.S. hopes to stay one step ahead of China in technology so that China continues to buy American semiconductors... selling enough to China.
Photo: Rutenberg and Huang Renxun, Business Insider
As early as October 2022, the Biden administration had already implemented a series of chip export restrictions, which were continuously tightened to prevent American semiconductor giants like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel from selling their most advanced chips in China, forcing these companies to find workarounds. Previously, NVIDIA had developed a customized H20 chip for the Chinese market that met U.S. export regulations, and started accepting orders in February of last year.
However, due to the sale of "downgraded special edition" chips to China, NVIDIA was repeatedly targeted by the Trump administration. On April 15, NVIDIA issued a notice stating that the U.S. government informed them on April 9 that the export of H20 chips to China required a license, and then on April 14, they were told that these regulations would be implemented indefinitely. The notice mentioned that this new regulation would affect the company's quarterly costs of approximately $5.5 billion, involving inventory, procurement commitments, and related reserves for the H20 chips.
The Wall Street Journal reported on April 17 that the Trump administration's move exposed its "dual ambitions" in the fields of technology and trade. The report also cited sources who said that NVIDIA privately opposed any new restrictions and stated that China has already been able to produce some chips that are on par with NVIDIA's "special edition" H20 chips for China.
In addition, on April 2, the Trump administration raised tariffs on goods worldwide, imposing so-called "reciprocal tariffs," with a tariff rate of 145% on China. In response, China immediately introduced a series of measures, including restrictions on rare earth exports, to precisely counterattack. From May 10 to 11, high-level economic and trade talks between China and the United States were held in Geneva, Switzerland, and both sides agreed to reduce tariffs within 90 days, lowering the rate by 115%.
Bloomberg reported on July 2 that according to a statement released by Siemens in Germany, the U.S. Department of Commerce has notified the company that it no longer needs "government approval" to conduct business in China. The report noted that the Trump administration has at least lifted the requirement for export licenses for the sale of chip design software to China, and believes this is part of a trade agreement being implemented by both countries to promote the flow of key technologies.
On July 15, during his visit to China, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun announced a "very, very good news" - after three months, the Trump administration has approved the sale of H20 chips to the Chinese market.
"The U.S. government has approved our export license, and we can start shipping. So we will begin selling H20 to the Chinese market. I am very excited to ship H20 soon, and this is really a very, very good news," Huang Renxun told Chinese CCTV reporters. He also mentioned that NVIDIA will release a new graphics card called RTX Pro, "designed specifically for computer graphics, digital twins, and artificial intelligence (AI)."
NVIDIA also confirmed this news on its official website, stating that the U.S. government has assured NVIDIA that it will issue H20 export licenses, and the company hopes to start shipping as soon as possible.
Bloomberg noted that this release came amid signs of improvement in U.S.-China relations, following an agreement framework reached in trade talks between the two countries, ensuring mutual progress in the approval process for the export of key technologies.
The New York Times reported on July 15 that the decision to relax H20 controls was made after Huang Renxun met with Trump on July 10, and Huang spent months lobbying Washington politicians to lift restrictions on the sale of AI chips to China. For this global top-valued company, the Chinese market is crucial, potentially bringing in billions of dollars in sales.
According to NVIDIA's annual report for the previous fiscal year ending January 26, the Chinese market generated $17 billion in revenue for the company, accounting for about 13% of its total sales. Huang Renxun emphasized that the Chinese market is a key growth market for NVIDIA.
"This is a big victory for Huang Renxun," Bloomberg commented. After the U.S. gradually tightened export controls on chips to China, Huang once explicitly stated that the U.S. chip ban was "a failure," which instead helped Huawei and other Chinese tech companies rise. Now, the Trump administration has relaxed the export controls on H20 chips, allowing Chinese AI companies such as DeepSeek and Alibaba Group to continue using NVIDIA chips to build their AI services and compete with American companies.
For some time now, Huang Renxun has consistently opposed export restrictions to China. In March this year, when asked about export controls to China, he pointed out that about half of the AI researchers in the world come from China, many of whom work in U.S. laboratories.
During his visit to China in April, Huang Renxun emphasized that NVIDIA will continue to optimize its product system that meets regulatory requirements without hesitation, and firmly serve the Chinese market. On April 30, Huang again expressed his hope that the Trump administration would change the chip export rules, saying that the world has undergone fundamental changes, and that China is "not behind" in the field of AI.
In April 17, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun arrived in Beijing for a visit. "Yuyuantan Tian."
In May, Huang Renxun also publicly stated that the U.S. semiconductor export controls against China have "failed," causing more harm to American companies than to China.
He described the U.S. chip restrictions on China as "costly" in an interview on May 19, stating that the restrictions have cost the company $15 billion in sales. He bluntly stated that the idea of preventing other countries from obtaining American technology by restricting the spread of artificial intelligence technology is fundamentally wrong. If American companies do not participate in competition in the Chinese market, then Chinese technology will spread around the world.
Previously, Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stated that China has repeatedly expressed its firm position on the U.S. malicious suppression of the Chinese semiconductor industry. The U.S. politicizes, overemphasizes security, and instrumentalizes economic and trade issues, continuously intensifying export controls on Chinese chips, pressuring other countries to suppress the Chinese semiconductor industry. This behavior hinders the development of the global semiconductor industry and ultimately harms itself, harming others and oneself.
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