To understand China’s refusal, one must look beyond the silicon to the software. Nvidia’s dominance is secured not just by chip performance but by CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a proprietary software platform that has become the global standard for AI development. If Chinese AI developers were allowed to purchase the H200 chips, they would inevitably build their next generation of models on CUDA, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which Chinese developers optimize for American standards.
søndag 21. desember 2025
The US Is Selling H200 AI Chips to China – So Why Isn’t China Buying?
In a major policy shift on December 8, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Nvidia (the world’s leading designer of AI accelerators) is allowed to export advanced H200 chips to “approved customers” in China. However, more intriguing is the fact that China – despite lagging in the area of high-end chip design for at least two generations – has responded by limiting domestic buyers’ access to these advanced AI processors.
To understand China’s refusal, one must look beyond the silicon to the software. Nvidia’s dominance is secured not just by chip performance but by CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a proprietary software platform that has become the global standard for AI development. If Chinese AI developers were allowed to purchase the H200 chips, they would inevitably build their next generation of models on CUDA, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which Chinese developers optimize for American standards.
To understand China’s refusal, one must look beyond the silicon to the software. Nvidia’s dominance is secured not just by chip performance but by CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a proprietary software platform that has become the global standard for AI development. If Chinese AI developers were allowed to purchase the H200 chips, they would inevitably build their next generation of models on CUDA, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which Chinese developers optimize for American standards.
