American Flip-Flop about H20 chip restrictions

Reporting on April 9 suggested that the Trump administration in the United States had reversed the course of limiting exports to H20 -chips China -the most advanced range of NVIDIA to stay outside the American export checks. Allegedly the change of the heart of the White House, the dinner of President Donald Trump with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang followed. The news surprised the industry, especially because limiting the sale of high-end chips is part of Trump’s technical policy compared to China.

But Reports on April 15 revealed that the Trump government actually had Nvidia told on April 9 That the H20 chips are subject to licenses for China. Nvidia was told to expect the license requirements for the indefinite future. ”

The administration, who was probably a flashy remark from the president, offered the president’s report, attributed the report of 9 April to ‘Nepnieuws’.

The ultimate decision to limit China access to the H20 chips should not be a surprise. Since the return to the White House, the Trump government had indicated that it would delve into technical restrictions in the context of the China-US competence. This included a step to limit H20 export. H20 -chips, together with the access from China to various other advanced chips that have been purchased through third parties, may have contributed to the ability of Chinese companies to innovate and work around the American restrictions.

Two developments were special eye opening. First, Huawei’s Mate 60 -Thone included in 2023 An advanced 7nm chip Produced by China’s state companies Smic. Second, fast forward to this yearDeepseek’s R1 AI model bewildered AI interested parties because it is competitive with (or even surpassing some benchmarks) leading American AI models.

Shortly after the Deepseek Revelations, the two -part leaders of the House Select Committee for the CCP sent a letter to national security adviser Michael Waltz Encourage the White House to tackle ‘Mazen’ in its semiconductor regulations in the name of national security. The letter also called for “reasonable guarantees” to protect American AI innovations against strategic opponents such as China. They specifically emphasized two types of leaks: the aforementioned transitions by third parties (with reference to Singapore) and purchases of chips currently falling outside the regulations, namely the H20 chip of Nvidia.

In the light of the strong Bipartisan concern aimed at strategic competition with China, many believed that the White House would investigate the H20 chips. Indeed, Reporting on the same day In January, the selected committee leaders sent the letter that there were early discussions among the Trump team about limiting H20 chips.

Trump has also nominated Landon – a China Hawk and The former technology policy advisor For the House Select Committee on the CCP – to lead export administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Commerce Department. The Trump administration has even taken steps to tackle some of the third-party leakage problems from the letter from the selected committee, Malaysian counterparts ask for monitoring from Nvidia chip purchases. All in all, these signals had formed the expectations of technical players for H20 restrictions that came off the pipeline.

The back and forth on the H20 chips reflects the occasional improvised approach to Washington’s technical policy in the midst of competition with China. The Trump Government goes to Lower the budget for BIS And rejected A senior director of the Staff of the National Security Council (NSC) who is responsible for technology and national security (David Feith, who also had a background in the Asia policy). These actions – who have had little control in the midst of the dismissal of various other officials from the National Security Council and the general trend of Changing regulations without public comments or notification – Stand at odds with Washington’s objectives to protect national security and to exceed China in strategic high -tech.

Flip-flopping on things ranging from the expected H20 controls to the Technical exemptions for rates (which now enforces the administration are only temporarily worsens the uncertainty for companies that try to make long -term investment decisions while staying competitive with Chinese and other foreign companies.