By Karen Freifeld Feb 4 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is willing to allow China's ByteDance to buy Nvidia's H200 chips, but the AI chipmaker has not agreed to proposed conditions for their use, according to a person familiar with the matter. The U.S. said it would approve the license about two weeks ago, the person said, but Nvidia has not accepted the U.S. government's Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirement as now drafted – to ensure China's military does not access the chips – among other conditions. More broadly, Nvidia is negotiating with the U.S. over the terms of licenses to ship its H200 AI chips to companies in China, according to the person and two others familiar with the matter. In a statement, Nvidia said it was an intermediary between the U.S. government and potential customers that would have to comply with the U.S. restrictions. "We aren't able to accept or reject license conditions on our own," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "Although KYC is important, KYC is not the issue. For American industry to make any sales, the conditions need to be commercially practical, else the market will continue to move to foreign alternatives." ByteDance, which owns TikTok and is one of the biggest AI companies in China, could not be immediately reached for comment. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. is expected to allow Nvidia to sell the H200s and similar chips from AMD to China, sources said, given that President Donald Trump himself greenlit the sales, once national security concerns have been addressed. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld; editing by Chris Sanders and Rod Nickel)
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