Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sat down with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week, a meeting that carries significant weight as Washington wrestles with how aggressively to restrict advanced AI chip exports to China. For a company whose market cap recently touched $4 trillion, the stakes of these conversations are difficult to overstate.
The meeting is the latest in a series of encounters between Huang and Lutnick since 2025, reflecting just how central Nvidia has become to the US government’s broader strategy on AI competitiveness and national security. Lutnick has publicly called Huang “fantastic” and positioned chip policy as a cornerstone of the US-China technology rivalry.
The China revenue problem
Policy around Nvidia’s H200 chip exports to China has already undergone notable shifts. Discussions in late 2025 appeared to open a window for certain sales, but by early 2026, officials were claiming no H200 sales to China had actually occurred.
Then there’s the H20 chip, a lower-performance variant specifically designed to comply with existing export restrictions. Even that product has come under scrutiny, with questions about whether it still provides too much capability to Chinese AI developers.
