China halts orders for NVIDIA's H200 chip amid US ban
NVIDIA's H20 chip has landed in the middle of a fresh US-China dispute.
Things got heated after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, "We don't sell them our best stuff, not our second-best stuff, not even our third-best," on July 15, 2025, which Chinese regulators found "insulting."
Some Chinese companies scaled back their orders for the chip, adding more strain to already tense relations.
The way forward for NVIDIA
Lutnick's comments came right as US-China trade talks were underway, making negotiations even trickier.
NVIDIA responded by clarifying that the H20 is just for commercial use—not military.
Meanwhile, China is now pushing to use more homegrown chips. To keep exporting to China, NVIDIA and AMD have agreed to pay 15% of their China sales revenue back to the US government.