President Trump’s announcement that the American chip maker Nvidia would be able to sell semiconductors to China appeared to roll back years of policies aimed at blocking the country’s access to advanced technologies.

特朗普总统宣布，美国芯片制造商英伟达获准向中国出售半导体。这一决定似乎逆转了数年来旨在阻止中国获取先进技术的相关政策。

At stake, officials in Washington have argued, is China’s ability to use American technology to gain military and economic advantages, particularly through artificial intelligence. By cutting China off, lawmakers wanted to preserve the lead the United States has achieved in A.I. and slow China’s efforts to catch up.

华盛顿官员称，此举关乎中国能否利用美国技术获取军事和经济优势，尤其是在人工智能领域。议员们希望通过切断中国获取技术的渠道，保住美国在人工智能领域的领先地位，并延缓中国的追赶步伐。

On the other side, Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, spent months trying to persuade Mr. Trump to reverse course. He argued that limiting China’s access to American technology has only spurred Chinese companies to improve faster.

另一方面，英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋历时数月游说特朗普改变立场。他声称，限制中国获取美国技术只会促使中国企业加速自主创新。

Mr. Trump’s decision on Monday to allow Nvidia to sell its second-most-powerful chip, known as the H200, to Chinese commercial customers vetted by the U.S. Commerce Department strikes “a thoughtful balance that is great for America,” an Nvidia spokesman said.

特朗普周一决定允许英伟达向经美国商务部审核的中国商业客户出售其第二先进的H200芯片。英伟达发言人表示，这一决定实现了“兼顾各方的平衡，对美国大有裨益”。

The impact of Mr. Trump’s decision is unclear. But the Chinese government has already spent billions in effort to become an A.I. superpower. The country’s chip makers are racing to make advanced chips on their own, and Chinese A.I. companies have become more efficient at using the chips they have access to.

这一决定的影响尚不明朗。但中国政府已投入数十亿美元，力求成为人工智能超级大国。中国芯片制造商正全力自主研发先进芯片，而中国人工智能企业也在更高效地利用现有可获取的芯片资源。

“The push for domestic production will continue,” said Jiang Tianjiao, an associate professor at Fudan University. “Beijing’s strategy is clear.”

“国产芯片研发的推进不会停止，”复旦大学副教授江天骄表示。“中国的战略方向十分明确。”

Investor bets that a Chinese company could soon compete with Nvidia have driven huge gains in the country’s tech stocks this year. Shares of the partly state-backed chip designer Cambricon have risen more than 120 percent, compared with a year ago. Last week, Moore Threads, a start-up chip maker founded by a former Nvidia executive, went public in one of the Shanghai Star Market’s largest offerings of the year.

投资者押注中国企业很快就有能力与英伟达竞争，这推动中国科技股今年大幅上涨。国有控股芯片设计公司寒武纪的股价较去年上涨逾120%。上周，由前英伟达高管创办的初创芯片企业摩尔线程在上海科创板上市，成为该板块今年规模最大的IPO之一。

But even Huawei, the telecommunications giant leading China’s race to compete with Nvidia, remains at least two years behind the Silicon Valley company, experts said.

但专家表示，即便是引领中国与英伟达竞争的科技巨头华为，仍落后这家硅谷公司至少两年时间。

Chinese chips still lag behind Nvidia’s in performance, and the companies face major constraints on their output. Chinese chips can produce, at most, 2 percent as much computing power as foreign rivals, said Tim Fist, a senior adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank.

中国芯片的性能仍不及英伟达，且企业面临巨大的产能制约。智库新美国安全中心高级客座研究员蒂姆·菲斯特称，中国芯片的算力最多仅为国外同类产品的2%。

Computing power is crucial in A.I. development. Advanced A.I. systems are powered by hundreds of thousands of chips known as GPUs, which companies pack into buildings known as data centers to create giant supercomputers that gobble electricity. OpenAI, the A.I. start-up that created ChatGPT, is planning to build five such facilities in the United States that would together consume more electricity than the three million households in Massachusetts.

算力是人工智能发展的关键。先进的人工智能系统由数十万块图形处理器提供动力，企业将这些芯片集中部署在数据中心，构建成耗电量巨大的超级计算机。ChatGPT的开发方、人工智能初创企业OpenAI计划在美国建造五座这样的设施，其总耗电量将超过马萨诸塞州300万户家庭的用电量总和。

Chinese demand for cutting edge chips is also high. The biggest tech companies, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, have poured money into A.I. efforts and infrastructure like data centers.

中国对尖端芯片的需求同样十分旺盛。阿里巴巴、腾讯以及TikTok母公司字节跳动等头部科技企业已向人工智能相关项目及数据中心等基础设施投入巨额资金。

For Chinese companies, “gaining access to higher-end chips like the H200 does indeed come at a critical moment,” said Frank Kung, an analyst at TrendForce, a market research firm in Taipei, Taiwan.

“对于中国企业而言，能获得H200这类高端芯片无疑恰逢关键节点，”台湾市场研究机构集邦科技分析师龚明德表示。

Some officials who worked for former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. have warned that access to the Nvidia chips could help China’s A.I. companies buy time while the country’s chip makers improve the supply and performance of their own offerings.

曾在前总统拜登政府任职的一些官员警告称，让中国企业获得英伟达芯片可能会为中国AI公司争取时间，与此同时，中国本土芯片制造商有机会提升产品供应量与性能。

Mr. Trump’s decision to allow Nvidia to sell advanced chips in China has also renewed a debate about how much future advancements in A.I. technology will depend on vast stockpiles of powerful chips.

特朗普允许英伟达对华出口先进芯片的决定也重新引发了关于未来人工智能技术发展在多大程度上依赖于高性能芯片储备的讨论。

Washington’s constraints have pushed Chinese companies to be more efficient. This year, the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rocked the tech industry with its claim that it had created powerful A.I. systems that required fewer chips and were significantly cheaper to build than those of better-funded American rivals.

华盛顿的限制措施迫使中国企业提高效率。今年，中国初创企业深度求索宣称其研发的强大人工智能系统所需芯片更少、建造成本远低于资金更雄厚的美国竞争对手，这一消息震撼了科技行业。

The less powerful China-made chips require more electricity. But industrial electricity costs in China are far lower than in the United States, said Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, a tech research firm. The abundant cheap power has helped companies create sophisticated A.I. systems despite less powerful chips, Mr. Su said.

中国国产芯片性能较弱，能耗更高。但科技研究机构Omdia首席分析师苏连杰（音）表示，中国的工业电价远低于美国。他指出，充足的廉价电力资源帮助中国企业在芯片性能不足的情况下，仍能构建复杂的人工智能系统。

The Chinese government has pushed companies there to buy domestic chips and warned Nvidia’s chips may carry risks. In July, China’s internet regulator said that it had summoned Nvidia to explain security risks associated with one of its chips developed for sale in China, saying the chips could be shut down remotely or used to track a user’s location.

中国政府一直推动国内企业采购国产芯片，并警告英伟达芯片可能存在安全风险。今年7月，中国互联网监管机构表示已约谈英伟达，要求其就一款专为中国市场研发的芯片相关安全风险作出说明，指出该芯片可能存在远程关停或定位用户位置的风险。

Many Chinese tech companies are already using a mix of domestic and foreign chips, said Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group. “Just because some Chinese companies will choose to purchase some number of H200 does not mean domestic development of advanced A.I. hardware will stop,” he added.

DGA-奥尔布赖特石桥集团合伙人保罗·特里奥洛表示，许多中国科技企业已在混合使用国产和外国芯片。“部分中国企业选择采购一定数量的H200芯片，并不意味着先进人工智能硬件的国产研发会停止，”他还说。

Mr. Trump’s willingness to widen China’s access to advanced American chips has drawn condemnation from members of Congress and former Biden administration officials.

特朗普愿意扩大中国获取美国先进芯片的渠道，这遭到了美国国会议员和前拜登政府官员的谴责。

This summer, Mr. Trump proposed the idea of the government taking a cut of A.I. chip sales to China. On Monday, he reiterated that, writing that 25 percent “will be paid to the United States of America.”

今年夏天，特朗普提出政府要从人工智能芯片对华销售收入中抽成的想法。周一，他重申了这一主张，写道，25%的销售收入“将付给美国政府”。

Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to export controls on chips has led to some paradoxical outcomes. Hours before he said the Commerce Department was finalizing the details to allow sales of the H200 in China, the Department of Justice announced it had detained two people for selling those chips to the country.

特朗普对芯片出口管制采取的交易型策略引发了一些矛盾结果。就在他宣布美国商务部正在敲定H200芯片对华销售细节的数小时前，美国司法部宣布逮捕了两名向中国出售该型号芯片的人员。