The US Commerce Division has reportedly given 10 Chinese language corporations, together with Alibaba, Tencent, TikTok guardian firm ByteDance, retailer JD.com, Lenovo and Foxconn, the permission to buy NVIDIA’s second-best H200 processors. Based on Reuters, nevertheless, NVIDIA has but to make a supply.
In December 2025, the US authorities allowed NVIDIA to promote H200 processors to authorised clients in China, after blocking its gross sales attributable to issues that it could support the event of the nation’s navy applied sciences. China agreed to import a number of hundred thousand H200 chips in January, Reuters reported on the time, with the primary shipments being meant for 3 unnamed Chinese language web corporations.
The H200 is likely one of the firm’s strongest AI chips, second solely to its high-end B200 processors. Whereas the B200 is quicker, the H200 remains to be much more succesful than the H20, which was cleared for the Chinese language market half a yr sooner than the H200. The authorised corporations for H200 should buy as much as 75,000 chips both instantly from NVIDIA or from intermediaries, however the corporations reportedly pulled again from making a purchase order after getting steering from the Chinese language authorities.
Reuters says China’s steering was triggered by adjustments on the US facet, nevertheless it says these adjustments stay unclear. It is also price noting that native Chinese language corporations have been growing their very own chips after the US blocked exports to their nation. China has been encouraging native corporations to make use of them as a way to stimulate the homegrown chip business. The Chinese language authorities can also be reportedly nervous that the H200 chips bought to its corporations have hidden vulnerabilities. That is as a result of to ensure that the US authorities to legally get its 25 percent cut from H200 gross sales, the chips need to cross by means of US territory.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who beforehand warned the US authorities that its export restrictions are making his firm lose its maintain on China, not too long ago flew to Beijing with President Donald Trump to attend a summit with Chinese language President Xi Jinping. It stays to be seen whether or not the journey would result in China giving native corporations the inexperienced mild to buy the H200.
