Nvidia's AI chip sale to ByteDance hinges on conditions set by Trump administration
The Hindu
The Trump administration is willing to allow China’s ByteDance to buy Nvidia’s H200 chips, but the AI chipmaker has not agreed to proposed conditions for their use, according to a source
The Trump administration is willing to allow China’s ByteDance to buy Nvidia’s H200 chips, but the AI chipmaker has not agreed to proposed conditions for their use, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The U.S. said it would approve the license about two weeks ago, the person said, but Nvidia has not accepted the U.S. government’s Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirement as now drafted, to ensure China’s military does not access the chips, among other conditions.
More broadly, Nvidia is negotiating with the U.S. over the terms of licenses to ship its H200 AI chips to companies in China, according to the person and two others familiar with the matter.
Nvidia said it was an intermediary between the U.S. government and potential customers that would have to comply with the U.S. restrictions.
“We aren’t able to accept or reject license conditions on our own,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Although KYC is important, KYC is not the issue. For American industry to make any sales, the conditions need to be commercially practical, else the market will continue to move to foreign alternatives.”
ByteDance, which owns TikTok and is one of the biggest AI companies in China, could not be immediately reached for comment. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nvidia and its Chinese customers have once again found themselves caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-China tech war. China has already granted preliminary approval to three of its largest tech companies - ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba - along with AI startup Deepseek to import the chips, though the regulatory conditions for China’s approvals also are still being finalized. This news from the U.S. side represents the latest twist on whether China will get chip shipments first promised by President Donald Trump in early December, with a 25 percent cut to the U.S. government. The same arrangement applies to similar chips from firms such as Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.
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