US government greenlights NVIDIA selling GPUs to Chinese customers

NVIDIA has announced that the US government has granted the company approval for selling GPUs to Chinese customers, following the US ban on the sale of high-end GPUs over fears that China would use them to advance military operations and get a leg up in the global AI arms race.

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NVIDIA attempted to work around those initial bans set by the US government by introducing new GPUs specifically designed within the parameters set by the US government, which meant these China-destined models had underpowered hardware.

One of those GPUs was the H20, which NVIDIA specifically designed for sales to China and was granted approval by US authorities to begin shipments. However, the US government reversed its decision and blocked the H20 by no longer issuing export permits for it. This decision cost NVIDIA $10 billion in sales.

This flip-flopping by US regulators resulted in NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang openly calling the US trade restrictions with China "precisely wrong" and a "failure". Huang went on to say the world can benefit from Chinese innovations, and the US benefits from having top AI researchers relying on an American company, NVIDIA.

The GPU maker announced on Monday that it has filed applications to sell the NVIDIA H20 GPU in China, and that it has received an assurance from the US government that "licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon."

"Huang also provided an update to customers, noting that NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the NVIDIA H20 GPU again. The US government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon. Finally, Huang announced a new, fully compliant NVIDIA RTX PRO GPU that"is ideal for digital twin AI for smart factories and logistics," reads the NVIDIA blog post