Nvidia shares surged 4.7% to $171.78 in premarket trading Tuesday, extending gains from last week when the company became the first in history to close with a market capitalization above $4 trillion.
The jump came after the company announced Monday that it expects to soon resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China after receiving assurances from the US government that export licenses will be approved.
The development marks a potential easing in trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies and offers Nvidia a renewed foothold in a critical market.
The company said it has filed applications to sell the H20 GPU again, and has been assured that licenses will be granted.
“NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the NVIDIA H20 GPU again. The US government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company’s blog post reads.
The move follows a ban imposed in April that restricted Nvidia from exporting the H20 to China under tightened US export control rules.
The restriction had a significant financial impact on the chipmaker, leading to a $4.5 billion inventory charge in the second quarter and a projected $10.5 billion revenue hit across its April and July quarters.
Nvidia stock surges; analysts say move adds tailwind to growth
Nvidia shares surged 4.7% to $171.78 in premarket trading Tuesday.
The broader market followed, with Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures rising 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.
The news also lifted peers.
AMD climbed 3.18% to $150.89 in premarket trading, as investors interpreted the move as a possible shift toward a more stable US–China chip policy landscape.
The confirmation that two different GPUs — the H20 and the RTX PRO — can now be sold in China and a more China-friendly stance by the Trump administration is hugely positive, said Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes.
“The news not only means that Nvidia’s revenues accelerate even more sequentially in the back half of full-year 2026, but it also adds a huge tailwind to growth in the fiscal first half of 2027,” Reitzes wrote in a note Tuesday as he increased his target price on the stock to $235 from $205.
“Now Nvidia can better compete with Huawei — not only in the China market, but globally,” Reitzes added.
As of Monday’s close, Nvidia shares have climbed 22% year-to-date, rebounding from a sharp drop of nearly 30% in April.
The company had previously taken a $4.5 billion inventory charge in the second quarter after being barred from selling its H20 chips in China.
The planned resumption of shipments could help Nvidia recover a significant portion of those lost sales.
“This is a major catalyst for Nvidia shares, as many had written off the chance of any meaningful revenue coming from China,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.
According to sources cited by Reuters, Chinese firms are rushing to secure orders for the H20 chips following the announcement.
CEO Huang: Competing in China is critical
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been an outspoken critic of US restrictions on chip exports, arguing that denying access to Nvidia’s products simply drives Chinese firms to develop their own alternatives — especially Huawei.
“Anybody who thought that one chess move to somehow ban China from H20s would somehow cut off their ability to do AI is deeply uninformed,” Huang said earlier this year.
He emphasized the need for US companies to compete actively in China to avoid ceding long-term technological ground.
The policy shift follows a reported meeting between Huang and President Donald Trump last week, which appears to have played a role in securing the license assurances.
AI momentum continues with Meta’s data center plans
The broader AI chip sector received another boost Monday when Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is building several massive data centers to power its next wave of AI projects.
One of the facilities, dubbed “Prometheus,” is set to go online in 2026 in Ohio.
Given Meta’s reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs for training large AI models, the infrastructure expansion is expected to drive additional demand for the chipmaker’s products in the coming years.
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