When President Donald Trump announced his tariffs on April 2, tech was one of the sectors hit the hardest. Billions of dollars in market value were lost in days, and Nvidia was among the most affected companies.
This past week, Nvidia submitted a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating that the U.S. government’s requirement to obtain a license to export H20 chips to China would cost the company $5.5 billion.
The H20 GPU is for running AI models, but it’s not Nvidia’s best chip for AI, which is the A100. It is, however, designed to meet certain requirements that the U.S. government instituted in order to sell the chips in China.
Even as the trade war between the U.S. and China continues to ramp up, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the company will still work with China during his visit to the country.
“The increased restrictions have impacted our company significantly,” Huang said on CCTV. “Growing up in China, I’ve seen how the country has watched us grow over the last 30 years. Of course, it’s a very large market, and our interactions with and work serving Chinese companies have made us better. We will continue to make significant efforts to optimize our products to comply with regulations and continue serving the Chinese market.”
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A terrible time with tariffs.
Nvidia lost more than $270 billion in market value since the Trump tariffs, although it got off easier compared to Apple, which lost $700 billion. And like Apple, Nvidia is working to try to avoid dealing with Trump’s tariffs by manufacturing its products in the U.S.
Just days before filing that it was going to take a $5.5 billion hit, the company pledged that it would invest $500 billion into U.S. manufacturing, according to a press release from The White House.
Nvidia acquired a million square feet of manufacturing space in Phoenix that will be used by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips. The Blackwell chips are currently used for the company’s RTX 50-series GPUs.
Along with the chip production happening in Phoenix, Nvidia is also building two supercomputer plants in Texas.
“The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time,” Huang said in a press release. “Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain and boosts our resiliency.”
