US export controls on artificial intelligence hardware are shifting in unexpected directions. The volume remains tiny. According to a congressional testimony reported by Reuters, very few Nvidia H200 chips have actually landed in China or Hong Kong. Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that while shipments of the advanced processor have officially started, the actual volume remains trivial.
This update comes as the US government quietly expands the list of Chinese firms permitted to buy high end processors. Newly cleared buyers include ZTE Kangxun Telecom, which is a unit of telecom giant ZTE, and a server assembly firm called Maginfra. Both companies received licenses to purchase Nvidia H200 processors. A subsidiary of cloud computing firm Kingsoft, known as Zhuhai Hengqin Yunxiang Zhisheng Network Technology, has also been cleared to purchase competing chips from AMD.
These new approvals widen the circle of authorized buyers beyond the major internet giants cleared earlier. Back in May, the US cleared 10 major Chinese tech firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com. Those initial transactions stalled as companies waited for regulatory approvals on both sides. Now, some Chinese cloud firms are telling their business partners that the import reviews are making progress.
The shipments are under intense political scrutiny in Washington. Representative Gregory Meeks, the senior Democrat on the foreign affairs committee, criticized the current policy during the hearing. He accused President Donald Trump of turning export controls into a political bargaining chip and weakening active safeguards. Meeks highlighted that the Commerce Department has not added any new Chinese entities to its restricted trade list since October, marking the longest pause in over a decade.
National security officials are balancing economic interests against defense concerns. Reports from Reuters indicate the Commerce Department is holding off on adding over 100 high risk Chinese entities to its official Entity List. This group includes memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies and the high profile AI startup DeepSeek. The Trump administration is reportedly trying to keep trade tensions with Beijing from boiling over.
US suppliers face a complex landscape even with active export licenses. Beijing continues to push its domestic tech firms to buy local silicon instead of American hardware. This domestic push creates market uncertainty for US chipmakers. Adding to the policy shift, the Trump administration recently eased export controls for the United Arab Emirates, allowing the Gulf nation easier access to advanced Nvidia processors and military tech.
