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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] U.S. media including Bloomberg and Reuters reported on Nov. 21 (local time) that the Trump administration is internally discussing whether to allow exports of NVIDIA’s H200 AI chip to China. Released in 2023, the H200 is one tier below NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell series (B100, B200).
Industry sources note that the H200 delivers 4–7 times higher performance than the currently approved low-spec H20 chip. However, reports also stressed that no final decision has been made and discussions may not lead to an actual export license.
The United States began restricting exports of high-performance AI chips such as the H100 to China in 2022 under the Biden administration. NVIDIA later created lower-spec versions—H800 and then H20—but these too faced restrictions. H20 exports were halted again in April this year under the Trump administration, then reapproved in August. Bloomberg commented that considering H200 exports marks a notable shift from past policy.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly argued that U.S. export controls are ineffective and instead weaken America’s semiconductor leadership by accelerating China’s push for self-reliance. China is now encouraging the adoption of domestic AI chips, with products from Huawei and Cambricon reportedly approaching H20-level performance.
At the APEC CEO Summit in South Korea on Oct. 31, Huang noted: “Just a few years ago we held 95% market share in China’s AI chip market. Today that number is zero.”
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
