China approves DeepSeek to buy Nvidia H200 chips under conditions, sources say
China has conditionally approved artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek to buy Nvidia H200 chips, with regulatory conditions still being finalized, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The sources said approvals were granted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Commerce, with additional conditions being set by the state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. The ministries and the NDRC did not respond to requests for comment. DeepSeek also did not respond.
Reuters reported on 28 January 2026 that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent were granted permission to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told reporters in Taipei on 29 January 2026 that the company had not received information about such approvals and believed China was still finalizing the licensing process. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment on DeepSeek’s approval.
The H200, Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip, has become a point of friction in U.S.-China relations. Reuters said U.S. authorities cleared exports of the H200 to China in January 2026, but shipments also depend on Chinese approval. The report said Beijing’s hesitation to allow imports has been a key barrier despite strong demand from Chinese firms.
The issue could draw scrutiny in Washington. Reuters reported on 28 January 2026 that a senior U.S. lawmaker alleged Nvidia helped DeepSeek refine AI models later used by the Chinese military, citing a letter sent to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Separately, The Information reported in January 2026 that DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation AI model V4, featuring stronger coding capabilities, in mid-February 2026.
As GNcrypto wrote on 6 January 2026, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said demand for computing power is surging as artificial intelligence models require far more training capacity each year and announced that the company Rubin and Vera chips are in full production and launching on schedule. The report also noted that some bitcoin mining companies have shifted infrastructure toward AI workloads as mining economics tighten and competition for GPU capacity increases.
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