Nvidia Eyes China Comeback as Trump Aligns with Huang
Beijing is reportedly considering allowing major AI firms to import millions of banned Nvidia chips, potentially erasing the impact of previous export restrictions.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is reportedly considering relaxing controls to allow major AI firms to import millions of banned Nvidia chips, as Ars Technica first reported via The Information. The ministry has asked ByteDance and Alibaba to provide plans for purchasing RTX Pro 5500 chips; while these are gaming chips, they are expected to be utilized in servers to power high-demand AI models.
If approved, ByteDance intends to order 1 million chips, which The Information reports would secure two quarters of projected sales for Nvidia. This potential surge comes as Nvidia's data center revenue from China has plummeted, accounting for less than 1 percent of the most recent quarter's revenue. Jensen Huang previously told The Information that U.S. export controls reduced Nvidia's share of the Chinese advanced AI chip market from roughly 95 percent to zero.
The shift follows a growing relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and President Donald Trump. While Trump initially tightened export controls—including a ban on H200 chips—he later lifted those restrictions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that Trump is "completely aligned" with Huang. Stephen Witt, author of *The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip*, told NPR that Huang has become the president's most influential technology adviser, noting that Trump's recent public dismissals of AI risks mirror Huang's own talking points.