August regulatory freeze on Samsung and SK Hynix paved way for December monetization of US chip sales to Beijing markets

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday authorized the export of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, subject to a 25% revenue levy paid to the U.S. Treasury, marking a stark reversal of the previous Biden administration’s export control regime. Trump further stated that similar frameworks are being finalized for AMD and Intel — a company in which the U.S. government acquired a 9.9% equity stake in August — framing the policy as a means to support American manufacturing jobs while maintaining national security oversight.

This move follows the U.S. Commerce Department’s Aug. 30 revocation of “Verified End User” (VEU) status for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, a regulatory enforcement that strips the South Korean chipmakers of their waiver to import advanced equipment into China without individual licenses. While the new directive re-opens the Chinese market for U.S. firms to sell “N-1” generation technology, the previous VEU revocation legally restricts South Korean competitors to legacy production nodes, effectively preventing their Chinese plants from upgrading capacity to compete in the same high-performance AI segment.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday authorized the export of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, subject to a 25% revenue levy paid to the U.S. Treasury, marking a stark reversal of the previous Biden administration’s export control regime. Trump further stated that similar frameworks are being finalized for AMD and Intel — a company in which the U.S. government acquired a 9.9% equity stake in August — framing the policy as a means to support American manufacturing jobs while maintaining national security oversight.

This move follows the U.S. Commerce Department’s Aug. 30 revocation of “Verified End User” (VEU) status for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, a regulatory enforcement that strips the South Korean chipmakers of their waiver to import advanced equipment into China without individual licenses. While the new directive re-opens the Chinese market for U.S. firms to sell “N-1” generation technology, the previous VEU revocation legally restricts South Korean competitors to legacy production nodes, effectively preventing their Chinese plants from upgrading capacity to compete in the same high-performance AI segment.

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