US Greenlights $15B Nvidia H20 Chip Mega-Deal—TSMC to Ramp Up 300K Unit Production
Washington just handed Nvidia a golden ticket—clearing $15 billion in H20 AI chip sales while locking in TSMC for a 300,000-unit order blitz. The silicon arms race gets a nitro boost.
Behind the scenes: Uncle Sam’s playing both cheerleader and puppet master. Export approvals for Nvidia’s flagship AI chips? Check. Forcing TSMC to divert capacity from crypto miners to Uncle Sam’s pet projects? Classic.
The bottom line: When the feds start writing checks, Wall Street traders start front-running the orders—because nothing says 'free market' like a $15B government-backed oligopoly. Happy bidding, bulls.
Nvidia H20 China Orders Surge as US Eases AI Chip Export Rules
The massive Nvidia H20 China orders will actually be added to existing inventory of around 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chips that were already produced. These Nvidia TSMC shipments represent a complete reversal of the April ban that had been blocking AI chip export rules for national security reasons.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had indicated during his recent Beijing trip that H20 chip demand levels WOULD determine production restart. He stated:
The H20 chip demand surge comes as Chinese tech giants including Tencent, ByteDance, along with Alibaba had substantially increased their orders before the April restrictions were put in place. Nvidia sold around 1 million H20 chips in 2024, and the company had warned of $5.5 billion inventory write-offs plus an additional $15 billion in foregone sales during the ban period.
The US-China chip deal represents part of broader negotiations over rare earth magnets, with AI chip export rules becoming a key bargaining tool right now. Despite these policy changes, Nvidia still needs to obtain export licenses from the Commerce Department, though authorities assured the company that they would approve these soon. The Nvidia TSMC shipments and overall Nvidia H20 China orders situation continues to develop as the Commerce Department processes licenses, with Nvidia expecting more TSMC shipments once officials finalize approvals.
