China clears first Nvidia H200 imports, opening the door for big AI chip orders

For weeks, the H200 was the kind of hardware everyone talked about and almost no one could actually receive. Chinese firms had demand, Nvidia had US export clearance, and yet shipments were still getting hung up at the border.

That logjam is starting to ease. China has approved the import of its first batch of Nvidia H200 artificial intelligence chips, according to people familiar with the matter, marking a policy shift as Beijing tries to balance a hunger for top tier AI compute with its push to build a homegrown chip industry.

The initial approvals are expected to benefit the biggest internet players first. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have been cleared to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total, two of the people said, while other companies are now lining up for subsequent batches.

The timing is notable. The approvals were granted during a trip to China by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who arrived in Shanghai last week and has since traveled to Beijing and other cities.

The H200 has become a flashpoint because it is far more capable than the H20, which was previously the most advanced Nvidia chip allowed into China under US export rules. The H200 has been described as delivering roughly six times the performance of the H20, a gap that domestic alternatives have struggled to close. Huawei and other local vendors have made progress, but they still trail the H200 on key workloads.

China had been hesitant to greenlight imports even after Washington formally cleared Nvidia to sell the chip earlier this month. Customs authorities had told agents the H200 was not permitted to enter, Reuters reported, leaving buyers unsure whether the holdup was temporary caution or an informal ban.

Demand has not slowed. Chinese technology firms have reportedly ordered more than two million H200 chips, far exceeding Nvidia inventory, and it remains unclear how Beijing will decide which companies get access next. Officials have also discussed requiring purchasers to meet quotas for domestic chips, a condition that could shape future approvals.