NVIDIA has announced that it will resume its H20 chip sales in China. They have applied for export license approval from the U.S. At the same time, the company launched its new AI chip, specifically designed for the Chinese market, named the RTX Pro GPU. These new chips are made according to U.S export restrictions. This is a smart step during the global China-U.S. war on AI.
The issue started in late October 2022 and applied strictly in 2023. The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export restrictions that aim to block China’s access to high-end AI chips.
According to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Commerce Department, they applied these controls because of the fear that China will use these AI Chips to train their AI models in military and for cyber warfare.
However, these restrictions were a part of the U.S.’s strategy to slow down China’s progress in military-grade AI, surveillance, and defence tech. This has not happened once; the U.S has banned it multiple times.
| Date | Restriction | What It Blocked | Purpose |
| Oct 2022 | Export ban on advanced AI chips (A100, H100) | Blocked Nvidia and AMD from selling high-end chips to China | Prevent military use of AI |
| Dec 2022 | Ban on U.S. citizens working with Chinese chip firms | Americans barred from helping China’s semiconductor R&D | Stop knowledge transfer |
| 2023 (full year) | Added Chinese firms (e.g., YMTC, CXMT) to trade blacklist | Limited access to U.S. tech | Protect the U.S. chip supply chain |
| Oct 2023 | Extended export rules to include H20 chips | Blocked even “weakened” versions of Nvidia AI chips | Close all loopholes |
| Jan 2024 | Pressured ASML (Netherlands) to stop selling EUV tools to China | Prevent chip production below 7nm | Cut China’s manufacturing power |
| April 2025 | Official ban on Nvidia H20 chip exports | Forced Nvidia to stop shipments and take $5.5 billion loss | Maintain AI lead and economic pressure |
As a result of these restrictions, NVIDIA stopped its AI chips export, including H100 and A100, in China to comply with U.S restrictions. But in order to continue its market revenue from China, NVIDIA developed a weaker version of its AI Chips named H20.
These chips were also banned by the government, because they felt that H20 chips are too powerful. So, these chips can help China close the AI gap with the U.S.
This sudden ban hit NVIDIA badly, because they had already manufactured their stock. CEO Jensen Huang later explained that they had to discard billions worth of inventory, and they lost $15B revenue.
Despite being a U.S company, NVIDIA earns 20-25% of its revenue from the Chinese market, especially from tech giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent.
Why Doesn’t China Just Make Its Own AI Chips?
China is trying to make its own chips, but the chip production needs EUV lithography machines. These machines are developed only by ASML (Netherlands), and they also follow restrictions on exporting the inventory to China. So, China can also produce chips up to 7nm, as advanced chips below 7nm require EUV lithography machines.
Chinese companies like Huawei’s HiSilicon and Alibaba’s T-Head are capable of designing chips, but they don’t have foundries to build them. They used to rely on HSMC or Samsung, but these are also restricted from helping China.
At this time, China’s production is 5-7 years behind NVIDIA, so in order to train their AI models, they invest billions to buy NVIDIA chips.
In recent months, U.S and China rivalry has softened, due to which restrictions are reduced. The U.S allowed certain software services such as EDA Tools export to China. NVIDIA found this to be a big opportunity to resume its sales and applied for a license. They are expecting to get a green light soon.
New AI Chip for China
Nvidia has now launched the RTX Pro GPU, a custom-built AI chip that meets U.S. export rules. It’s based on RTX Pro 6000D architecture, designed for AI tasks like smart factories and logistics.
This chip is part of the NVIDIA Backwell generation, but it has weaker specs and simple manufacturing, so that it can pass the export bans.
Nvidia’s struggle to continue its export to China highlights how closely tech and politics are linked. The U.S. wants to stay ahead in AI, while China is trying to build its own chips but still needs Nvidia. Nvidia is stuck in the middle; they are adjusting their models to generate revenue without disturbing the restrictive laws. It’s not clear when China will be able to combat this lag.
As we know, China is a developed country, and it always stays ahead of everything. Whether it’s about daily routine products or AI chatbots, it has maintained its legacy in every field. But for now, they have to compromise with these weaker chips, because something is better than nothing.
