The U.S. government is currently processing the export approval process for Nvidia's H200 high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) to China, but a specific approval timeline has not yet been determined. Amidst U.S.-China tensions surrounding semiconductor export controls, industry and market attention is focused on this issue.
On January 6th local time, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress stated that "the US government is actively pushing forward with the H200 export approval process," but also noted that "the outcome is still unknown." This does not contradict President Donald Trump's recent remarks about restarting H200 chip exports to China, but it actually suggests that the administrative process is not yet complete.
Nvidia is one of the most watched companies in the recent artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market, and the H200 is one of its flagship products. This product is a generation ahead of Nvidia's current generation of GPU architecture, "Blackwell," but its AI data processing performance remains excellent, and there is significant demand. CEO Jensen Huang specifically pointed out in his keynote speech the previous day that the market demand for this chip in China is very high.
In recent years, the United States has strengthened export controls on China to prevent the outflow of advanced semiconductor technology. Against this backdrop, whether the H200 chip will be included in the export license scope may become a key variable in assessing the direction of US-China technological competition. While the US government maintains its strategy of maintaining a competitive advantage in advanced technologies, balancing corporate profitability with the actual needs of the Chinese market becomes crucial.
On the other hand, Nvidia stated that its H200 supply capacity is sufficient and that even if exports to China resume, it will not affect supply to other global customers. Cress's CFO added that negotiations with customers planning to expand their data centers beyond next year are underway, demonstrating confidence in the semiconductor supply chain.
This development suggests that, against the backdrop of a protracted competition for technological hegemony between the US and China, the US government's semiconductor export policy towards China may be subject to more refined coordination. Particularly given the increasing strategic value of core AI-related technologies, this could have a significant impact on the future global supply chain of the semiconductor industry.
