US Bans Export of NVIDIA H20 Accelerators to China, a Potential $5.5 Billion Loss for NVIDIA

[AleksandarK]

President Trump's administration has announced that NVIDIA's H20 AI chip will require a special export license for any shipment to China, Hong Kong, or Macau for the indefinite future. The Commerce Department delivered the news to NVIDIA on April 14, 2025, citing worries that the H20 could be redirected into Chinese supercomputers with potential military applications. NVIDIA designed the H20 specifically to comply with earlier US curbs by scaling back performance from its flagship H100 model. The H20 features 96 GB of HBM3 memory running at up to 4.0 TB/s, delivers roughly 296 TeraFLOPS of mixed‑precision compute power, and offers a performance density of about 2.9 TeraFLOPS per die. Its single‑precision (FP32) throughput is around 74 TeraFLOPS, with FP16 performance reaching approximately 148 TeraFLOPS. In a regulatory filing on April 15, NVIDIA warned that it will record about $5.5 billion in writedowns this quarter related to H20 inventory and purchase commitments now blocked by the license requirement.

Shares of NVIDIA fell roughly 6 percent in after‑hours trading on April 15, triggering a wider sell‑off in semiconductor stocks from the US to Japan. South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix each slid about 3 percent, while AMD also dropped on concerns about broader chip‑export curbs. Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence project that, if the restrictions persist, NVIDIA's China‑related data center revenue could shrink to low‑ or mid‑single digits as a percentage of total sales, down from roughly 13 percent in fiscal 2024. Chinese AI players such as Huawei stand to gain as customers seek alternative inference accelerators. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has pledged to maintain a tough stance on chip exports to China even as NVIDIA commits up to $500 billion in US AI infrastructure investments over the next four years. Everyone is now watching closely to see whether any H20 export licenses are approved and how long the ban might remain in place.



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[Legacy-ZA]

Good.

Folks vastly underestimate the power of A.I and how it can be used/misused by an enemy undermine a nation with catastrophic consequences, from deep-fakes, to automated narratives to shape peoples minds/views. There are many impressionable people out there that can't tell the difference between truth and the lies anymore. A Matrix, if you will.

 

[the54thvoid]

I'll leave a warning, and see what I come back to. I've already deleted a post, so I'll put it simply.

No insults. No trolling. No patriotic nation bashing.

Reply with intelligence, actual facts, or queries that are worth civil discussion.

 

[ncrs]

They could sell it in the West if the price is right. I doubt it's going to be a "$5.5 Billion Loss" in the end.

 

[john_]

I am pretty sure Nvidia will find people to buy those accelerators. This is also seems to be bad news for AMD (MI308), their share price dropped more than Nvidia's when the news broke. It probably shouldn't because AMD doesn't sell (I believe) that much in China and they are a company that usually is very careful with it's inventory, so I would expect them to "only" lose some hundred of millions, not billions. On the other hand all those H20s going to be sold probably at a much lower price, could make some buyers interested for AMD's Instinct to go and buy those H20s instead.

 

[mtosev]

Too bad. This will probably affect nvidia's stock price. I own some Nvidia stocks.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Oh boy, I am getting the hell out of here!

Be thankful that it's actually still a person, and not automated A.I, then again, if that persons mind was already shaped by a said A.I, does it matter? mmm, yeah, anyway. Something to think about.

 

[Ruru]

Can these export regulations be bypassed like they have done with 4090D and 5090D cards?

 

[Quicks]

Ag shame, poor Nvidia how will they cope now.

 

[Bomby569]

Good.

Folks vastly underestimate the power of A.I and how it can be used/misused by an enemy undermine a nation with catastrophic consequences, from deep-fakes, to automated narratives to shape peoples minds/views. There are many impressionable people out there that can't tell the difference between truth and the lies anymore. A Matrix, if you will.

The US is full of those people, and Canada sure could use some protection with a export ban from the US to the US.

 

[LittleBro]

Alas, Singapore way it is.

 

[Dimitriman]

Jensen: "Heeeeey Gamers... Remember me? Did you know I love you all so much?"

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Wait, wasn't there a million $$$ per plate dinner attended by Jensun that got the export ban lifted a couple days ago?

And now the export controls are back in place?

 

[truehighroller1]

Wait, wasn't there a million $$$ per plate dinner attended by Jensun that got the export ban lifted a couple days ago?

And now the export controls are back in place?

NVIDIA announced plans to significantly expand its U.S.-based manufacturing following the Mar-a-Lago dinner attended by CEO Jensen Huang in early April 2025. The company committed to investing up to $500 billion over the next four years to build AI infrastructure in the U.S., including supercomputer manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Texas. Production of NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell AI chips has already started at TSMC’s plant in Phoenix, Arizona, with server manufacturing planned in Texas alongside partners like Foxconn and Wistron within 12-15 months. This move aligns with promises made to the Trump administration for new U.S. AI data center investments, which reportedly influenced the decision to pause export restrictions on NVIDIA’s H20 chips to China.

 

[john_]

Wait, wasn't there a million $$$ per plate dinner attended by Jensun that got the export ban lifted a couple days ago?

And now the export controls are back in place?

Well, food is digested and then the person is hungry again. So a dinner is something with a temporary effect, not permanent (except in cases where the ingredients warranty that the person will never get hungry again).

 

[bonehead123]

Ag shame, poor Nvidia how will they cope now.

Yea, I was gonna say the same thing, I mean it's ONLY a few billion here, a few billion there....

My guess is that Jacket Man might have to cancel, or at least delay, his upcoming new jacket order for a little while, until they can jack up the prices of their consumer-level cards some more, hahahaha

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I don't understand this cat and mouse game the US is playing. Just ban the sale of AI accelerators already. The H20 only exists because the previous card got banned, and that card only existed because the one before it got banned. Why keep changing the ban in increments every time a new card comes out?

 

[Athlonite]

Yeah pretty sure nVidia will just ship them to another country before they get on shipped to China with the money being put into Jenson's Cayman Island account and they'll be written off as a tax loss

 

[jaggerwild]

Dare I get my hopes up here….. I’m sure miners would still eat them up(unless they r no good to mine on)….

 

[Prima.Vera]

How about the current existing process: nVidia sels to Indian company, in India, or in Singapore or Bangladesh, which are actually fronts for Chinese companies. And they just ship the cards to Chinese mainland.
Does US really thinks those bans actually work??

 

[R-T-B]

Wait, wasn't there a million $$$ per plate dinner attended by Jensun that got the export ban lifted a couple days ago?

And now the export controls are back in place?

No that was decreed "fake news" remember?

Yeah I have trouble keeping up too, but it was.

which reportedly influenced the decision to pause export restrictions on NVIDIA’s H20 chips to China.

Which didn't pan out, throwing everything into a questionable state.

Dare I get my hopes up here….. I’m sure miners would still eat them up(unless they r no good to mine on)….

Mining is so 2022, it's all AI now. And these aren't intended for gaming like... at all.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Who knew the opening quote of MGS4 would become more and more true. But instead of actual wars its tradewars lol.

 

[Bomby569]

Who knew the opening quote of MGS4 would become more and more true. But instead of actual wars its tradewars lol.

history kind of tells us after trade wars come actual wars, so don't give up yet.

 

[Scattergrunt]

history kind of tells us after trade wars come actual wars, so don't give up yet.

 

[chrcoluk]

Good.

Folks vastly underestimate the power of A.I and how it can be used/misused by an enemy undermine a nation with catastrophic consequences, from deep-fakes, to automated narratives to shape peoples minds/views. There are many impressionable people out there that can't tell the difference between truth and the lies anymore. A Matrix, if you will.

Western countries are already full of people shaping views.