By Adria Cimino
Publication Date: 2026-01-03 21:10:00
Nvidia makes the world’s most powerful AI chips.
Nvidia (NVDA +1.14%) delivered top-notch performance over the past two years, with the stock climbing more than 200% over that time period. This is thanks to the company’s position in the artificial intelligence (AI) market, one that’s on the road to reach into the trillions of dollars in just a few years. Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips and related products and services has helped the company’s earnings soar to records.
But one problem weighed on Nvidia throughout most of 2025, and that was sales of chips to China. The U.S. had tightened export controls on chips to that country, and as a result, Nvidia reported a billion-dollar charge earlier in the year for chips that it couldn’t sell. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang says China’s AI chip market could represent hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the decade, so this clearly is a market that chip companies want to access.
A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump gave Nvidia the OK for sales of its H200 chip to China — and just recently, Nvidia made a related move that could be big for 2026. Let’s check it out and determine if now is a good moment to get in on the stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
Export controls on AI chips
So, first, a bit more background on the Nvidia-China situation. The U.S. initially placed controls on exports to that country and certain others for security reasons back in 2022. In response to that, Nvidia designed the H20 chip to specifically…
