That’s not to say that chip sales have slowed to a complete halt. The restrictions have helped to power a vibrant black market for Nvidia chips. That has drawn the attention of US law enforcement, which has been cracking down on smugglers who violate export controls by shipping the chips through countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Thanks to the AI boom, chip makers are enjoying strong demand for their products. Selling them, however, can be a tricky business. The US, under both the Biden and Trump administrations, have imposed tight restrictions on the sale of chips to China.
While some of those restrictions appeared to have eased, sales of such chips have not really picked up. Back in January, President Donald Trump announced that the US would allow chip giant Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China in exchange for a 25% cut to the government. China, however, has yet to allow any of the tech giants to purchase them.
