Nvidia CEO visits Beijing amid AI chip crackdown in US; stock plunges 7% on $5.5B China export hit 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang traveled to Beijing this week, meeting with Chinese officials just days after the company disclosed it expects a $5.5 billion charge tied to new U.S. export restrictions on its H20 AI chips.

The visit, reported by the South China Morning Post, was at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade — a government-linked group that supports Chinese exporters. It came shortly after the U.S. government informed Nvidia that it would now need a license to export H20 chips to China and several other regions, a move that threatens to sharply reduce the company’s revenue from one of its key international markets.

The H20, based on Nvidia’s Hopper AI architecture, was designed to comply with earlier export controls, yet the company now says the new licensing requirement could lead to a loss of up to $5.5 billion in the fiscal first quarter alone. On Wednesday, shares of Nvidia sank nearly 7% on the news of AI chip crackdown in US, while Dutch semiconductor giant ASML Holding NV dropped 5.7% after missing order estimates — together erasing over $180 billion in market value.

The shockwaves rippled through the broader market, with the Nasdaq 100 falling 1.8%, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index sliding 4%, and the Nasdaq Composite tumbling 3.1% on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also dropped 1.7%, while the S&P 500 fell 2.2%, as concerns mounted over how escalating U.S. trade measures — particularly under Trump’s second-term tariffs — could drag global tech demand and GDP growth.

Nvidia had generated between $12 billion and $15 billion in revenue from H20 chips last year. But CEO Huang noted in February that sales from China — the company’s fourth-largest market after the U.S., Singapore, and Taiwan — had already halved following previous restrictions.

Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance were reportedly unaware of the sudden new rules and had placed large orders for H20 chips amid surging AI demand. Now, those deals hang in the balance.

In response, Nvidia reaffirmed that it complies with all U.S. export laws and emphasized its contributions to national security and the economy. But it’s now under scrutiny from the U.S. House Select Committee on China, which is probing whether the company tried to bypass earlier controls by selling the H20 under prior regulations.

Looking ahead, Nvidia is shifting focus to its next-generation Blackwell chips, while the U.S. gears up to tighten AI-related export rules under proposed “AI diffusion” policies. Nvidia has warned that such restrictions could undermine America’s position in the global tech race.