WASHINGTON 

US President Donald Trump announced a new policy Monday that would allow American chip giant Nvidia to ship its advanced H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to “approved customers” in China and other countries.

Trump said he informed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of the decision and that Xi had “responded positively.”

"$25% will be paid to the United States of America. This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers," he said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump criticized prior export-control measures implemented during the former Biden administration, arguing that they forced US chipmakers to spend “billions of dollars building ‘degraded’ products that nobody wanted,” which he said slowed innovation and hurt American workers.

"That Era is over," he said.

The president emphasized that the policy would not affect Nvidia’s most advanced US products, including its Blackwell series chips and forthcoming Rubin architecture, “neither of which are part of this deal.”

Trump added that the Commerce Department is finalizing the details and that similar export-approval structures would apply to AMD, Intel, and other major American semiconductor firms.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Tuesday said that Beijing "always believes that China and the US should achieve mutual benefit through cooperation," while noting the relevant media reports.

'Colossal economic and national security failure'

A group of senior Senate Democrats criticized Trump’s decision, calling the move a "colossal economic and national security failure."

In a statement, top Democrats from key national security and appropriations committees – including Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren, Brian Schatz, Andy Kim, Michael Bennet, and Elissa Slotkin — warned that the decision would “squander America’s primary advantage in the AI race.”

The senators argued that providing Beijing with access to high-performance chips could bolster China’s military capabilities, accelerate its cyber-attack capacity, and enhance its industrial competitiveness.

They noted that Chinese AI company DeepSeek recently described the lack of access to advanced US chips as its “single biggest impediment” to catching up with its American rivals, warning that the administration’s move could eliminate that constraint.

“With this decision, President Trump is poised to remove that barrier,” the senators said, calling on him to reverse course and recommit to preserving American dominance in AI.