Nothing really new here.
We already knew Trump couldn’t let China get access to the latest Blackwell-class AI chips for national security reasons. The WSJ piece just confirms that his team opposed Nvidia’s request and advised him not to raise it with Xi. Nvidia is still cleared to sell less-advanced, export-compliant chips to China if buyers want them, so this is more of a reaffirmation than a policy shift.
Nvidia already knew where the line was.
They’ve been working with the Commerce Department for over a year to design “China-compliant” chips that stay just below U.S. performance thresholds. Jensen Huang’s request was more of a long-shot appeal to loosen those limits, not a misunderstanding of them.
So in short: Nvidia knew the rules; they just hoped for an exception. The WSJ article mainly documents the administration’s refusal to grant one.
The B200’s would go straight into weapons development (drones, missiles..) if it were allowed to be exported.