After months of rumors that the Trump administration intended to impose tariffs on semiconductors, tariffs on some chips were announced. The tariffs only apply to certain semiconductors, such as the Nvidia H200 advanced AI chip scheduled to be shipped to China.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday imposing a 25% tariff on advanced AI semiconductors produced outside the United States and exported through the United States to customers in other countries.
This news formally confirms a key element of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to authorize NVIDIA to begin shipping its H200 advanced AI chips to select customers in China in December. It also includes chips from other companies such as AMD MI325X.
Despite the tariffs, NVIDIA publicly supported the move to allow the sale of chips to approved customers.
“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow the U.S. chip industry to compete to support high-wage jobs and manufacturing in the United States. Offering the H200 to commercial customers, vetted and approved by the Department of Commerce, strikes a great and thoughtful balance for the United States,” an NVIDIA spokesperson emailed to TechCrunch.
These H200 semiconductors are in demand. Nvidia is reportedly considering ramping up production of these chips after receiving a flood of early orders from Chinese companies.
However, demand is only one factor. Another is how the Chinese government will decide to regulate these imports.
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China is in a similar but different situation than the United States when it comes to chip production and global AI competition. China wants to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry, but it also doesn’t want to fall behind while waiting for domestic technology to catch up with international rivals.
According to a report in Nikkei Asia, China’s central government is working on draft rules and guidelines on the number of semiconductors that Chinese companies can buy from abroad. This would allow it to buy some of Nvidia’s chips and would be a reversal from the country’s current setbacks on chip imports.
Wednesday’s executive order does not apply to chips imported into the United States and then used domestically for research, defense or commercial purposes.
“The United States currently fully manufactures only about 10% of the chips it needs and relies heavily on foreign supply chains. This dependence on foreign supply chains poses a significant economic and national security risk,” the declaration states.
