95% to Zero: Nvidia's China Chip Sales and Trump's AI Pivot

Nvidia's share of China's advanced AI chip market fell from roughly 95 percent to zero after Washington tightened export controls, according to figures Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has cited and that were reported by The Information, via Ars Technica. Now China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is weighing whether to let two of its largest tech companies buy Nvidia hardware again, a move that would partially reverse that collapse and test how much influence Huang holds inside the Trump administration.

What Is China Considering Allowing Nvidia to Sell?

Sources familiar with the talks told The Information that China's tech regulator has asked Alibaba and ByteDance to submit plans for purchasing Nvidia's RTX Pro 5500 chips, according to Ars Technica's reporting. The RTX Pro 5500 is marketed as a gaming chip, but Beijing wants details on how the companies intend to deploy it — with expectations that the hardware would end up inside servers running some of China's most in-demand AI models. Neither Alibaba nor ByteDance has publicly confirmed the request, and the plan has not been finalized.

The timing follows a summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that, on its surface, changed little in AI policy. Export controls were not formally discussed at the summit, Ars Technica reported, and a fragile trade truce between the two countries was extended by only two months. Analysts cited in the piece expect that looming new US export restrictions could unravel that truce and prompt Beijing to retaliate by restricting rare-earth exports.

How Did Trump Go From Nvidia Skeptic to Ally?

Trump did not arrive in office as an Nvidia booster. He reportedly opened his term asking "What the hell is Nvidia?" and, rather than loosening the export limits set under President Joe Biden, tightened them — banning exports of Nvidia's H200 chips to China, according to Ars Technica. He also floated breaking Nvidia apart, on the theory that more domestic competition among chipmakers would serve the United States better in what officials have called the AI race with China.

That position shifted after a dinner between Trump and Huang at Mar-a-Lago. Trump later said he "learned the facts of life" about Nvidia and came away describing the company as an "amazing" AI leader, Ars Technica reported. The account does not detail what was said at the dinner, but the outcome was a marked change in tone, from a president weighing whether to dismantle Nvidia to one who, in the outlet's words, looks to Huang for guidance on AI policy.

Why Are Critics Worried About Huang's Influence?

Nvidia is already the world's most valuable company, and it stands to profit substantially if both Washington and Beijing keep prioritizing rapid AI development over tighter safety and security reviews, Ars Technica reported. That dynamic is what worries the critics the outlet cites: not that Huang is doing anything improper by advocating for his company, but that his advice may be shaping a president's understanding of a technology with significant downside risk at a moment when caution could matter more than speed.

The concern is less about a single chip deal than about pattern. A CEO whose company's fortunes rise and fall with export policy has, by the administration's own account, become a trusted voice on how that policy should be set. Ars Technica frames this as an open question rather than a settled scandal — the piece does not allege wrongdoing, only that the incentives are worth watching.

What Happens Next in the US-China Chip Standoff?

Nothing is locked in. China's request to Alibaba and ByteDance is a planning exercise, not an approved import license, and the two-month trade truce extension leaves little room before the next flashpoint arrives. If new US export restrictions land as expected, Beijing has signaled it could respond by curbing rare-earth shipments the United States relies on for defense and electronics manufacturing, according to the analysts Ars Technica consulted.

For Nvidia, the stakes are straightforward: re-entering China's AI server market at any scale would reverse a business line that went to zero under the strictest controls. For the White House, the harder question is the one critics are raising — how to weigh a leading industry voice against the broader mix of national-security and strategic-competition concerns that shaped the original export limits in the first place. HTT News has tracked related shifts in AI business strategy, including Meta's new AI-focused subscription plans, as major tech firms recalibrate around both regulation and revenue.