US export controls on AI accelerators have only succeeded in forcing China to develop its own tech

Half a decade of US trade policy aimed at denying China access to America's most potent semiconductor tech has only served to spur China to develop homegrown alternatives.

The Trump administration's decision on Monday to reverse course and allow the sale of Nvidia's H200 – still one of the GPU giant's most potent AI chips – to Chinese customers, in exchange for a 25 percent cut of revenue from sales, is unlikely to change that. That ship has already sailed, and Beijing is charting a course toward technological independence.

As evidence of this, on Tuesday the Financial Times reported that the Chinese government planned to restrict access to imported H200s. Chinese leaders have already been moving in this direction for months.

After the Trump administration reversed a sales ban on Nvidia's made-for-China H20 accelerators, Beijing accused the chipmaker of conspiring with Uncle Sam to plant backdoors in ...