Before any of Nvidia’s (NVDA) H200 chips are ever exported to China, the GPUs must first undergo a long and winding road involving a security checkpoint in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
Nvidia’s H200 chips, which are designed for artificial intelligence applications and high-performance computing, received approval for shipment to China by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday. The chip exports would be allowed for approved customers in China. Trump said the U.S. Department of Commerce is finalizing the policy, and it would open the door for other chipmakers, such as AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC), to export advanced AI chips to approved Chinese customers as well.
Nvidia’s H200 chips are manufactured in Taiwan by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM). From there, the GPUs would be shipped to the U.S. to undergo a security review before eventually being sent to the approved customers in China, the report said.
This circuitous route might allow the U.S. to collect a 25% share of the sales without it seeming like an export tax, which is forbidden in the U.S. Constitution. Instead, it could be classified as an import tax or tariff.