Nvidia spikes on report that the Trump administration is considering letting Nvidia sell its best Hopper chips to China
One big headline really can change price action.
Shares of Nvidia popped 2% after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is internally discussing the idea of letting Nvidia sell its H200 chips to China. These chips, unlike the H20, are not the nerfed versions that Nvidia designed specifically for sale to China, but rather are its best chips from its Hopper generation, which preceded Blackwell.
The president had mused about allowing Nvidia to sell Blackwell chips to China ahead of talks with Chinese President Xi in late October, but this item was reportedly axed from the agenda at the last minute, per The Wall Street Journal.
Nvidia’s success in 2025 has come despite, not because of, its China business. New export restrictions weighed on its ability to send H20 chips to the world’s second-largest economy. The company took a $4.5 billion impairment charge in its Q1 earnings related to this export ban, and said Q2 sales would have been $8 billion higher if these curbs were not in effect.
After Nvidia reached a deal with the Trump administration that restored its ability to ship that chip, China reportedly responded by banning its domestic technology companies from buying these semiconductors.
“Sizable purchase orders [for the H20] never materialized in the quarter due to geopolitical issues and the increasingly competitive market in China,” CFO Colette Kress said on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.
Ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report, this headline had hit the wires:
*TRUMP: IF NVIDIA’S HUANG IS HAPPY, I’M HAPPY
Well, the CEO didn’t seem too thrilled by the market’s reaction to the chip designer’s strong Q3 results. Perhaps this will cheer him up.
