Nvidia was gaining early on Friday. The chip maker looks to be nearing official U.S. permission to export artificial-intelligence chips to China.

Nvidia shares were up 1% at $176 in premarket trading. The stock rose 1.9% on Thursday but is down 1.4% over the past three months.

One thing weighing on the stock has been uncertainty over whether it will get access to the fast-growing Chinese AI processor market. Things look to be moving on that front, at least in Washington.

The Commerce Department has sent license applications for Nvidia chip sales for review by the State, Energy and Defense Departments, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Commerce Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early on Friday. President Donald Trump said earlier this month he would allow shipments of the company's H200 chip to China, provided that Nvidia gives the U.S. government a 25% cut of sales.

The H200 isn't as powerful as Nvidia's current generation Blackwell AI chips. As Nvidia's newer chips are increasingly made on more advanced manufacturing process nodes at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, there will be additional capacity to make H200s for China.

It remains to be seen whether Chinese authorities will allow Nvidia to sell the H200 in the country. Regulators in Beijing are discussing allowing only limited access to the chips, the Financial Times reported previously, citing people familiar with the matter.

Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was up 1.4% and Broadcom was rising 0.8% in premarket trading. AMD is also awaiting permission to export chips to China.