China has approved its first imports of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, in a sign Beijing is recalibrating its stance as it weighs rising AI demand against efforts to boost domestic development.
The approvals cover several hundred thousand H200 chips and were granted during Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s visit to China this week, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
The sources asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Initial approvals favour three Chinese tech companies
The first batch of import clearances has been allocated mainly to three major Chinese internet companies, with other firms now lining up for subsequent approvals, one of the sources said.
The companies that received the initial green light were not named.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Chinese regulators had given in-principle approval to companies including Alibaba, Tencent Holdings and ByteDance to move to the next stage of preparations for potential purchases of Nvidia’s H200 chips.
“The companies are now cleared to discuss specifics such as the amounts they would require, the people said, asking to remain unidentified, discussing private talks. Beijing will encourage companies to buy a certain amount of domestic chips as a condition for approval, according to the people, though no exact number has been set,” the report had said.
China’s industry and commerce ministries, as well as Nvidia, had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
A sensitive chip in a fraught relationship
The H200, Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip, has become a focal point in US-China technology relations.
While Washington earlier this month formally cleared the way for Nvidia to sell the chip to Chinese customers, shipments still required approval from Chinese authorities.
Until now, Beijing’s hesitation had been the main obstacle to imports, despite strong demand from Chinese firms.
Chinese customs authorities had previously told agents that H200 chips were not permitted to enter the country, Reuters reported earlier this month.
That uncertainty has contrasted sharply with market demand.
Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips, far exceeding Nvidia’s available inventory, according to a Reuters report last month.
Balancing AI ambitions and self-reliance
The approvals suggest Beijing is prioritising the needs of large internet companies that are spending billions of dollars on data centres to develop AI services and compete with US rivals such as OpenAI.
Access to cutting-edge hardware is seen as critical for training and running large AI models at scale.
While Chinese chipmakers, including Huawei, have developed products that rival Nvidia’s H20 chip — previously the most advanced processor Nvidia was allowed to sell to China — they remain well behind the H200.
Nvidia says the H200 delivers roughly six times the performance of the H20.
Even so, Beijing has discussed making approvals for foreign chip imports conditional on companies buying a certain quota of domestic semiconductors, a policy aimed at supporting local manufacturers and reducing long-term dependence on overseas technology.
What comes next remains unclear
It is uncertain how many additional companies will receive approval in later batches or what criteria regulators are using to decide eligibility.
Huang arrived in Shanghai last Friday for routine annual events with Nvidia’s China staff and has since travelled to Beijing and other cities, underscoring the importance of the Chinese market to the company.
For now, the limited approvals highlight Beijing’s careful balancing act between accelerating AI development and reinforcing its push for technological self-reliance.
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