The US has approved around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s H200 AI chip, but none have received a single unit yet. The stalled sales come as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lands in China this week, hoping to unlock a deal that could be worth billions.
US regulators have granted licenses for major Chinese tech firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, to purchase the H200, Nvidia’s second‑most powerful AI chip. Several hardware makers and distributors, such as Lenovo and Foxconn, also hold approvals and can resell chips to other buyers.
Each approved company can reportedly buy up to 75,000 chips under US export rules, which still aim to limit China’s access to cutting‑edge AI hardware.
Before Washington tightened export controls, Nvidia controlled roughly 95% of China’s advanced AI chip market. The H200 sits just below Nvidia’s top H100‑class products and offers strong performance for training and running large AI models. For Chinese firms racing to build their own chatbots and AI services, getting H200 supply at scale is a key priority.
Why No Chips Have Shipped Yet
Despite US approval, Chinese buyers have not converted those licenses into actual shipments. Sources told Reuters and other outlets that Beijing has quietly urged big tech platforms to slow or redirect Nvidia orders to boost domestic chipmakers like Huawei. One US official even said the Chinese central government has “not let them, as of yet, buy the chips” so that spending stays focused on homegrown AI hardware.
The result is a stalemate. US rules require Chinese buyers to prove strict security procedures and promise not to use H200 chips for military purposes. NVIDIA must also demonstrate it has sufficient inventory in the US and route shipments in compliance with American export and revenue-sharing requirements. At the same time, Chinese regulators want imports balanced by large orders for local chips, which adds another layer of negotiation.
Jensen Huang has become a central figure in this tug‑of‑war. He has already confirmed that Nvidia holds licenses from both Washington and Beijing to sell H200 chips to “many customers in China” and that demand far exceeds supply. Now, his latest visit to China, timed to coincide with a high‑level US‑China summit, is widely seen as a push to finally move chips from paper approvals to actual deliveries.
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