Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) shares climbed Friday after reports emerged that the Trump administration has started a formal review process that could greenlight the first shipments of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to China.

The Export Review Process Begins

According to Reuters, the U.S. Commerce Department has forwarded license applications for H200 exports to the State, Energy, and Defense Departments. Under current export-control rules, those agencies now have 30 days to weigh in on the applications, though President Donald Trump will make the final decision.

Earlier this month, Trump signaled he'd be open to allowing H200 sales to China, with the U.S. government collecting a 25% fee on the transactions. His reasoning? Permitting these sales could actually help American chipmakers stay ahead of Chinese competitors by reducing demand for domestically produced Chinese chips.

Current officials, including White House AI adviser David Sacks, have argued that allowing H200 shipments could discourage Chinese companies like Huawei from accelerating their efforts to match the most advanced chip designs from Nvidia and AMD.

Analysts Remain Bullish

The potential policy shift comes as Wall Street continues to shower Nvidia with positive ratings. All five of the most recent analyst ratings have maintained a bullish stance on the stock.

Truist Securities kept its "Buy" rating and raised its price target from $255 to $275 on December 19. Tigress Financial went even further, maintaining a "Strong Buy" rating with a target of $350, up significantly from its previous $280 target.

Morgan Stanley maintained an "Overweight" rating with a $250 price target, up from $235. Meanwhile, Citigroup and Barclays both kept their positive ratings in late November, setting targets of $270 and $275 respectively, up from previous marks of $220 and $240.

Nvidia shares were up 2.95% at $179.28 at the time of publication on Friday.