Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the US’s reversal of restrictions on sales of chips to China followed recent trade negotiations with Beijing over rare earths. President Donald Trump curbed exports of Nvidia’s H2O artificial intelligence chips to China in April as part of an escalation of his trade war with Beijing.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained the Trump administration's turnabout in assuring Nvidia that it [can sell its H20 artificial-intelligence chip](

Critics have slammed the White House's anticipated move to loosen AI chip exports as ceding leverage to the U.S. rival.

US Commerce Secretary Lutnick states China is only receiving "4th best" Nvidia AI chip, H20, as part of a strategic move

Separately, stock in Dutch chip company ASML was falling sharply Wednesday after the company cut its outlook, blaming trade wars and tariffs for lower demand.

Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang spent months telling everyone what a grave mistake the US was making restricting shipments of artificial intelligence processors to China — with little sign that his argument was swaying anyone.