Nvidia (NVDA) is making a dual-pronged strategic move, opening orders for its new Vera CPU in China while simultaneously reinforcing its Washington lobbying muscle. The chip giant is aggressively targeting the Chinese AI market with a processor that sidesteps current U.S. export restrictions, and has hired a former Intel and Commerce Department veteran to steer its policy operations.
According to a Reuters report on June 12, Nvidia has begun pitching its Vera CPU to prospective Chinese customers and is now accepting orders, with availability possibly as early as August 2026. The Vera is Nvidia’s first standalone data center processor designed for agentic AI—systems capable of executing tasks independently. Crucially, as a CPU and not a GPU, the Vera is not covered by the same U.S. export controls that have barred advanced GPUs like the H200 from the Chinese market.
CEO Jensen Huang, who has previously said Nvidia’s China market share “effectively fell to zero,” described the Vera as a potential multibillion-dollar business when unveiling it in March. The company now projects around $20 billion in Vera chip revenue by the close of its fiscal year in January. One major Chinese cloud provider is reportedly planning to order more than 300 Vera-powered servers, initially deploying them in overseas data centers for testing. Cloud giants Alibaba and ByteDance are already collaborating with Nvidia to integrate Vera chips, though no confirmed orders were disclosed earlier.
On June 13, Nvidia shares edged higher again after the appointment of Bruce Andrews as chief external affairs officer in Washington, D.C. A former Intel government affairs chief and U.S. deputy commerce secretary (2014–2017), Andrews brings deep experience in trade and export frameworks. His hire underscores Nvidia’s focus on policy influence as semiconductor export scrutiny intensifies. In January, the Commerce Department began reviewing H200 chip export applications to China on a strict case-by-case basis, and while roughly ten Chinese firms were cleared to purchase them by May, no actual shipments had been delivered, highlighting the gap between licenses and execution.
The Vera CPU reportedly delivers up to 1.8x the performance of comparable server processors from rivals, putting it in direct competition with Intel and AMD, whose stocks also rallied on the same day. Wall Street maintains a Strong Buy consensus on Nvidia, with an average price target of $311.41, implying over 50% upside. The double-barreled product-and-policy strategy aims to reopen one of the world’s largest AI markets while insulating Nvidia against geopolitical risk.
