U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s decision to allow Nvidia to sell advanced chips to China marks more than just a shift in U.S. tech policy. It also raises questions about how far he¡¯ll go to steady ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Republican leader granted America¡¯s most-valuable company permission on Tuesday to export its high-end H200 chip to China, watering down years of U.S. national security safeguards. While he pledged Nvidia¡¯s top products would remain off bounds, the move gives China access to semiconductors at least a generation ahead of its best technology.

Justifying that decision, Trump vowed to simultaneously ¡°protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America¡¯s lead in AI.¡± That philosophy echoed Nvidia chief Jensen Huang¡¯s claims that depriving Beijing of U.S. chips only helps Chinese firms such as Huawei Technologies catch up, and calls from within Trump¡¯s own Cabinet to get China ¡°addicted¡± to American tech.