The decision appears to settle a US debate about whether Nvidia and rivals should maintain their global lead in AI chips by selling to China or withhold the exports, though Beijing has told companies not to use US technology, leaving it unclear whether Trump’s decision would lead to new sales.

Nvidia shares rose 2pc in after-hours trading after Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, following a 3pc rise during the day on a report by Semafor.

Trump said in his post that he had informed President Xi Jinping of China, where Nvidia’s chips are under government scrutiny, about the move and that he “responded positively.”

He said the US Commerce Department was finalising details of the arrangement and the same approach would apply to other AI chip firms such as Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

Trump’s post said the fee to be paid to the US government was “$25 per cent”, and a White House official confirmed he meant 25 per cent, higher than the 15 per cent proposed in August.

“We will protect national security, create American jobs, and keep America’s lead in AI,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Nvidia’s US customers are already moving forward with their incredible, highly advanced Blackwell chips, and soon, Rubin, neither of which are part of this deal.”

Trump did not say how many H200 chips would be authorised for shipment or what conditions might apply, only that exports would occur “under conditions that allow for continued strong national security.”

Administration officials consider the move a compromise between sending Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips to China, which Trump has declined to allow, and sending China no US chips at all, which officials believe would bolster Huawei’s efforts to sell AI chips in China, a person familiar with the matter said.

“Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America,” Nvidia said in a statement.

Intel declined to comment. The US Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, and AMD did not respond to requests for comment.

A White House official said that the 25pc fee would be collected as an import tax from Taiwan, where the chips are made, to the United States, where the chips will undergo a security review by US officials before being exported to China.

Asked about the approval on Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said that China believes it should cooperate with the US to achieve mutual benefits.

Fears of chips strengthening China’s military

China hawks in Washington are concerned that selling more advanced AI chips to China could help Beijing supercharge its military, fears that had first prompted limits on such exports by the Biden administration.

The Trump administration had been considering greenlighting the sale, sources told Reuters last month.

Trump said last week he met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and that the executive was aware of where he stood on export controls.

“It’s a terrible mistake to trade off national security for advantages in trade,” said Eric Hirschhorn, who was a senior Commerce Department official during the Obama administration.

“It cuts against the consistent policies of Democratic and Republican administrations alike not to assist China’s military modernisation.”

According to a report released on Sunday by the non-partisan think tank, the Institute for Progress (IFP), the H200 would be almost six times as powerful as the H20, the most advanced AI semiconductor that can legally be exported to China, after the Trump administration reversed its short-lived ban on such sales this year.

The Blackwell chip now in use by US AI firms is about 1.5 times faster than H200 chips for training AI systems, the IFP said, and five times faster for inferencing work where AI models are put to use. Nvidia’s own research has suggested Blackwell chips are 10 times faster than H200 chips for some tasks.

Several Democratic US senators in a statement described Trump’s decision as a “colossal economic and national security failure” that would be a boon to China’s industry and military.

Republican Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House China Select Committee, said in a statement to Reuters that China would use the chips to strengthen its military capabilities and surveillance.

“Nvidia should be under no illusions – China will rip off its technology, mass-produce it themselves and seek to end Nvidia as a competitor,” he said.

In recent months, Beijing has cautioned Chinese tech companies against buying chips that Nvidia downgraded to sell to the Chinese market, which are the H20, RTX 6000D and L20, two sources said.

George Chen, partner at consultancy The Asia Group, said he expected Chinese regulators to soften their hardline approach to Nvidia following Trump’s comments on Xi’s reaction, given efforts to improve US–China relations. The H200 was also far more useful to China than the H20, he said.

“I expect state media to gradually change their narrative and be more welcoming to Nvidia,” he said.

Bo Zhengyuan, political analyst at consultancy firm Plenum, said he also believed that Beijing would be more cautious about intervening.

“But on a longer horizon, we don’t know how long this window can last. China will not be disturbed by this easing, and it will remain ultra-focused on gaining advanced chip-making capability of its own,” he said.

China’s domestic AI chip companies now include tech giant Huawei Technologies as well as smaller players such as Cambricon and Moore Threads.

A fire in a building on Tuesday in Indonesia’s capital killed at least 20 people, police said.

Police said the fire started in the afternoon when a battery on the first floor of a seven-story office building in central Jakarta exploded and the fire spread to the upper levels.

“As of now, 20 victims have been retrieved, consisting of five men and 15 women,” Susatyo Purnomo Condro, the Central Jakarta police chief, told reporters, adding that one of those killed was a pregnant woman.

Susatyo said most of the victims did not seem to suffer from burns and most likely died of asphyxiation.

He said the bodies had been taken to the police hospital for autopsy.

Firefighters are still scouring the scene to find more people possibly trapped inside the building, he said.

“We are still collecting data, but for now, we are focusing on identifying the victims who have been found,” he said.

Susatyo said that firefighters were focused on cooling the building due to intense heat and thick smoke on several floors.

Deadly fires are not uncommon in Indonesia, where in 2023, at least 12 people were killed and 39were  injured in eastern Indonesia after an explosion at a nickel-processing plant.

The planet is on track to log its second hottest year on record in 2025, tied with 2023 after a historic high in 2024, Europe’s global warming monitor said Tuesday.

The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service reaffirms that global temperatures are on course to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels — the threshold considered safer in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Temperatures rose by 1.48C on average between January and November, or “currently tied with 2023 to be the second-warmest year on record”, according to the service’s monthly update.

“The three-year average for 2023-2025 is on track to exceed 1.5C for the first time,” Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at Copernicus, said in a statement.

“These milestones are not abstract — they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Burgess said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in October that the world would not be able to contain global warming below 1.5C in the next few years.

Last month was the third warmest November on record at 1.54C above pre-industrial levels, according to Copernicus, with the average surface air temperature reaching 14.02C.

Such incremental rises may appear small but scientists warn that is already destabilising the climate and making storms, floods and other disasters fiercer and more frequent.

“The month was marked by a number of extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia, causing widespread, catastrophic flooding and loss of life,” the monitor said.

Fossil fuel fight

The Philippines were ravaged by back-to-back typhoons that killed some 260 people in November, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were hit by massive floods.

The global average temperature for the northern hemisphere autumn, from September to November, was also the third highest on record after 2023 and 2024.

“Temperatures were mostly above average across the world and especially in northern Canada, over the Arctic Ocean, and across Antarctica,” the monitor said, adding that there were notable cold anomalies in northeastern Russia.

Copernicus takes its measurements using billions of satellite and weather readings, both on land and at sea, and their data extends back to 1940.

Global temperatures have been stoked ever higher by humanity’s emissions of planet-heating gases, largely from fossil fuels burned on a massive scale since the industrial revolution.

Nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023 but ambitions have stalled since then.

The COP30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil, concluded last month with a deal that avoided a new, explicit call to phase out oil, gas and coal following objections from fossil fuel-producing countries.