A key market opened back up for the chipmaker.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) stock has been surging since it dipped below $100 per share in April after the tariffs were first announced.
It sank again a few days later in mid-April when the AI chipmaker learned that it would need a license to sell its H20 chips in China, effectively crippling its business in China.
It resulted in a roughly $4.5 billion earnings hit in Q1 for NVIDIA. It also left some $2.5 billion in revenue on the table, according to analysts.
“Today, however, the $50 billion China market is effectively closed to US industry. The H20 export ban ended our Hopper data center business in China,” NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said on the Q1 earnings call in May. “As a result, we are taking a multibillion dollar write off on inventory that cannot be sold or repurposed. We are exploring limited ways to compete, but Hopper is no longer an option.”
But now it appears that the Trump Administration has changed course, opening China back up to U.S. chipmakers like NVIDIA and AMD (NASDAQ:).
Assurances From U.S. Government
NVIDIA announced the lifting of the restriction in a blog post on Monday, stating that NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the NVIDIA H20 GPU in China again.
“The U.S. government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post read.
The announcement follows trips that Huang made to both Beijing and Washington, D.C. in July to meet with government officials, including President Donald Trump.
“General-purpose, open-source research and foundation models are the backbone of AI innovation,” Huang told reporters in Washington, D.C. “We believe that every civil model should run best on the U.S. technology stack, encouraging nations worldwide to choose America.”
The move opens the $50 billion Chinese market to NVIDIA and AMD. NVIDIA generates about 10% of its revenue from China, which would be about $4.4 billion.
Price Targets Raised
Since its April lows, NVIDIA stock has soared some 80% to about $171 per share. Including about a 5% increase on Tuesday.
The news prompted several Wall Street analysts to boost their price targets, including Oppenheimer, which raised it to $200 from $175. Melius Research boosted its target for NVIDIA to $235 per share from $200. Also, DZ Bank increased it by $30 to $195 per share.
The median price target is $176.50 per share, but that is sure to rise with these recent upgrades.
Piper Sandler analysts note, however, that NVIDIA should feel the effects of the restrictions in its Q2 earnings. Piper analysts estimate that NVIDIA will see an $8 billion revenue impact in the July quarter from the restrictions.
AMD, which also stands to benefit from the change, saw its stock rise about 7% Tuesday.