The watered down H20 chips were designed to comply with the former administration’s restrictions on the export of high-performance AI chips to China.
Nvidia said on Monday that it expects to resume sales of its H20 graphics processing units to China as the U.S. government has given assurances that it will grant the tech giant’s license applications.
“The U.S. government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company stated in a blogpost on July 14, without specifying any timeline for the deliveries.
The Trump administration imposed export controls on Nvidia’s H20 chips in April. Nvidia had explicitly designed the H20 chips to comply with the former administration’s restrictions on the export of advanced and high-performance AI chips to China.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang first announced the plan to resume H20 chip sales to China during his visit to Beijing earlier this month, where he held meetings with Chinese government and industry officials to discuss ways to advance safe and secure AI.
In Beijing, Huang introduced a new RTX Pro graphics processing unit, which he described as “fully compliant” with regulatory requirements and suitable for digital twin AI applications in smart factories and logistics, the company said.
Prior to his visit to China, Huang met with President Donald Trump and policymakers in Washington to reaffirm Nvidia’s support to maintain America’s global leadership in AI development, boost job creation, and enhance domestic AI infrastructure and onshore manufacturing.
Nvidia stated that Huang’s meetings with U.S. and Chinese officials were aimed at reaffirming the company’s commitment to support open-source research, foundation models, and applications—which it considers vital for positive AI innovation.
These efforts, the company said, will help “democratize AI” and empower emerging economies in every region of the world.
“General-purpose, open-source research and foundation models are the backbone of AI innovation,” Huang told reporters in Washington. “We believe that every civil model should run best on the U.S. technology stack, encouraging nations worldwide to choose America.”
