Jensen Huang Joins Trump in Beijing; NVDA H200 Chips Approved for 10 Chinese Firms

Jensen Huang's surprise inclusion in President Trump's Beijing delegation on May 14 struck at the heart of US-China AI rivalry and the export-control regime that has defined semiconductor geopolitics for the past two years. The NVIDIA CEO joined a high-profile contingent including Apple's Tim Cook, Tesla's Elon Musk, and asset managers Larry Fink and Stephen Schwarzman, signaling that dealmakers view the summit as a moment to unlock technology flows between the world's two largest economies.

Simultaneously, the US government approved NVIDIA H200 chip sales to 10 Chinese companies, a policy shift that suggests the Trump administration may be loosening restrictions on advanced AI semiconductor exports to China. This follows months of tension over whether US technology could fuel Chinese AI competitors. The H200, an advanced accelerator aimed at large language model inference, had been under export restrictions. The approval to 10 firms represents both a symbolic and material opening.

Huang's presence and the policy approval create a two-layered bull case for NVIDIA. First, there is direct revenue upside if Chinese AI infrastructure spending can access the full range of NVIDIA's product stack at scale. Second, the geopolitical narrative shifts from confrontation to negotiation, reducing regulatory tail risks that have weighed on valuation multiples. Market participants interpret this as potential normalization of US-China technology relations, which would unlock $20B+ in annual addressable market for NVIDIA in mainland China.

The risk is political: any escalation in US-China tensions could rapidly reverse these gains, and even if approved, export licensing could remain burdensome. Additionally, China has been investing heavily in domestic chip alternatives (Huawei, Alibaba) that could eventually erode NVIDIA's market share. But for now, the momentumThe empirical fact that winners keep winning over the medium term. is decidedly pro-NVDA.