The Commerce Secretary told CNBC that the two met over a dozen times to discuss the possibly of exporting Nvidia’s H200 chips to China before making a decision.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly spoke to President Donald Trump on the strategic importance of ensuring Chinese developers use American technology rather than China’s own tech stack to convince him to approve the export of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC on Thursday that the two discussed the deal at least a dozen times before it was finalized. He explained that Huang’s central argument was around long-term U.S. advantage in artificial intelligence.
“They talked about it a lot. More than a dozen times.”
Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Nvidia’s stock fell as much as 1.4% in pre-market trading. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the AI bellwether trended in ‘bearish’ territory over the past day.
Keeping Talent On American Platforms
The CEO reportedly told Trump that if Chinese developers become accustomed to domestic technology, they would gain expertise that could eventually challenge U.S. leadership. By contrast, requiring them to work on American systems would maintain leverage, ensuring that Chinese developers remain partially dependent on U.S. innovations.
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