Overview
- U.S. officials cleared about 10 Chinese buyers for Nvidia’s H200 AI chip, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com, with each customer allowed to order up to 75,000 units.
- No shipments have gone out because Chinese authorities signaled companies should pause purchases as they tighten reviews of foreign tech in critical systems.
- U.S. rules now require buyers to prove non‑military use and strong security controls, and a Trump‑brokered setup would route chips through the U.S. with 25% of sale revenue going to Washington, which has drawn suspicion in Beijing.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined President Trump’s China visit at the last minute and told China’s CCTV he hopes talks with Xi Jinping improve ties.
- Nvidia’s foothold in China has shrunk to near zero for AI accelerators as buyers turn to domestic options like Huawei, even though China once made up 13% of Nvidia’s revenue.