Will Nvidia turbocharge China's AI military?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S decision to approve previously banned exports of Nvidia Corp.'s powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to China could turbocharge the People's Liberation Army's technological ambitions, narrowing America's edge in military supremacy.

- KARISHMA VASWANI Bloomberg

Over time, this risks shifting the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, the primary region in which Washington competes with Beijing for influence and power.

It's still unclear how far the deal will go. Chinese regulators are reportedly keen to limit access to the chips to keep domestic developers on the path toward to self-sufficiency in semiconductor production. Trump says that President Xi Jinping has responded favourably to the move. But the shift away from tighter controls, if China approves this deal, could give the country crucial access to Nvidia's second-most powerful AI processor, which is roughly six times more capable than the H20 chips previously available to it. It's an important tool for any country trying to push the frontier of AI, especially in military applications.