Overview
- House China committee chair John Moolenaar asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for a mid-January briefing on the evidence behind President Donald Trump’s approval of H200 sales to vetted Chinese buyers.
- Moolenaar’s letter cited reports that Huawei’s cited performance gains involved a chip illicitly obtained through shell companies, arguing the policy reversal could erode a U.S. advantage.
- White House AI czar David Sacks said China is rejecting Nvidia’s H200 in favor of domestic semiconductors, attributing the stance to a drive for semiconductor independence and citing news reports.
- Nvidia said it is working with the administration on licenses for vetted customers and noted that earlier broad export curbs hurt U.S. competitiveness, while offering no sales results yet.
- Beijing has not publicly approved H200 imports, and Bloomberg reported China is weighing incentives of up to US$70 billion to bolster local chipmaking as the U.S. allows exports of the prior-generation Hopper chip.