NVIDIA can still sell H20 AI GPUs to China after CEO Jensen Huang has dinner at Mar-a-Lago

The US government has just reversed its plans to restrict exports of NVIDIA's H20 AI GPU to China, after CEO Jensen Huang had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with President Trump and his administration.

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In a new report from NPR that cites two sources, the newly-tweaked US export controls on the H20 AI GPU had been in the works for a few months now, and that the change in plans kicked off after NVIDIA promised the Trump administration that it would be investing around $200 billion into new US investments in AI data centers.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, with the Trump administration reversing its restrictions on the H20 AI GPU entering China. Not only that, but the Trump administration also had planned to roll out additional restrictions, but they too have been put on hold according to "two sources with knowledge of the plan who were not authorized to speak publicly" adds NPR.

The Trump administration's decision to allow Chinese companies to continue purchasing NVIDIA H20 AI GPUs is a "major victory" for the United States, says Chris Miller, a Tufts University history professor and semiconductor expert. Miller added: "Even though these chips are specifically modified to reduce their performance thus making them legal to sell to China - they are better than many, perhaps most, of China's homegrown chips. China still can't produce the volume of chips it needs domestically, so it is critically reliant on imports of NVIDIA chips".

• Read more: Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance, purchase $16B worth of NVIDIA H20 AI GPUs

We don't know if Jensen Huang spoke directly with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but we do know that NVIDIA promised to invest $200 billion into US-based investments into AI infrastructure on American soil.