US President Donald Trump and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang held a crucial meeting at the White House on January 31, 2025, concerning Chinese DeepSeek's market expansion and the potential tightening of export regulations for high-tech chips. The discussion is particularly timely as the US Department of Commerce investigates whether DeepSeek is using American chips that should not be shipped to China.
US export regulation tightening dates back to 2020, when the Trump administration prohibited American companies from selling chips to Huawei without special permission. Subsequently, in May, further restrictions were introduced by extending the so-called Foreign Direct Product Rule: this also affected the production of foreign chips based on American technology, preventing Huawei from accessing advanced semiconductors. In September, the Chinese company Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) was added to the US government's list of sanctioned companies (Entity List). Suppliers using American technology could only ship components to the company with special permission. The measures mainly affected advanced chips manufactured at 14nm, 10nm, 7nm and 5nm line widths. The restrictions thus significantly hindered China's access to the most advanced cutting-edge technology.
The US government is considering export restrictions on Nvidia's H20 chips to China, continuing the tightening policy begun by the Biden administration in 2022. The history of restrictions is well illustrated by the fact that after the Biden administration banned the sale of H100 chips to China, Nvidia developed the H800 model, which was also restricted in 2023, followed by the appearance of the H20 chip. Congress, with bipartisan support, is urging further tightening—Republican John Moolenaar and Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi jointly called on the government to review the export control system.
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JOSH BOAK
KrASIA Connection
J.P. Laub
