Trump banned the sale of the Nvidia chip, designed to avoid export control restrictions imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration, in April as the trade war between the two global powers escalated. The decision was rescinded this month after Trump met with Nvidia chief Jensen Huang before leaving for China.
China and the US agreed in the June deal on the easing of some US export controls in exchange for access to Chinese rare earth minerals.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was part of the London negotiation team, told CNBC in an on July 15 that the H20 chip was put “in the trade deal with the magnets”.
“We don’t sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. The fourth one down, we want to keep China using it,” he said, adding, “you want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack.”
The same day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg the H20 sale resumption “was all part of a mosaic”. Bessent had told US lawmakers in June there was “no quid pro quo” involving chips in exchange for rare earths. The Treasury Department did not respond a request for comment on the apparent inconsistency.
