US President Trump recently issued a message saying that NVIDIA (Nvidia) may allow China's latest Blackwell chip reduction version. According to Reuters, Trump said that if exporting to China, Blackwell chips must be reduced by 30% to 50% before...
US President Trump recently issued a message saying that NVIDIA (Nvidia) may allow China's latest Blackwell chip reduction version.
According to Reuters, Trump said that if exporting to China, Blackwell chips must be reduced by 30% to 50% before approval will be considered. He described this as a "negative upgrade" version of Blackwell to reduce the potential risks of military and advanced AI applications.
The US government currently approves NVIDIA and Ultramicro to export China's downgraded version of AI chips, such as NVIDIA H20 and Ultramicro MI308, but the condition is to pay 15% of sales revenue to the US government. According to external analysis, this revenue sharing model may be one of the conditions for the US to discuss with two chip manufacturers, and to continue to open up more products to enter the Chinese market.
The industry believes that if the United States finally agrees to release the reduced version of the Blackwell chip, it will not only help NVIDIA and Ultramicro re-expand Chinese market operations, but may also improve the decline in revenue caused by export restrictions in recent years. NVIDIA's total revenue for the year ended January 26 was about US$17 billion, accounting for 13% of the total revenue; Ultramicro's revenue in the Chinese market in 2024 was US$6.2 billion, accounting for 24%.
However, analysts also warned that if the U.S. opens higher-performance products without fully evaluating national security risks, it may weaken the legitimacy of export control policies and may even be seen as "changing national security with profits."
At present, Trump has not disclosed when he and NVIDIA executive chief Huang Rensha will hold a formal discussion on Blackwell's export, but has hinted that both parties may meet again soon. The industry is closely watching whether the U.S. will balance performance constraints and market opportunities, and evaluate its long-term impact on global AI chip supply chains.
Trump opens door to sales of version of Nvidia’s next-gen AI chips in China Extended reading: Trump calls NVIDIA H20 an old chip that allows 15% of the production and export to China
