US Commerce Dept. allows 10 Chinese firms to buy NVIDIA H200 AI chips

The US Commerce Department has reportedly given 10 Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, TikTok parent company ByteDance, retailer JD.com, Lenovo and Foxconn, the permission to purchase NVIDIA's second-best H200 processors. According to Reuters, however, NVIDIA has yet to make a delivery.

In December 2025, the US government allowed NVIDIA to sell H200 processors to approved customers in China, after blocking its sales due to concerns that it would aid the development of the country's military technologies. China agreed to import several hundred thousand H200 chips in January, Reuters reported at the time, with the first shipments being meant for three unnamed Chinese internet companies.

The H200 is one of the company's most powerful AI chips, second only to its high-end B200 processors. While the B200 is faster, the H200 is still a lot more capable than the H20, which was cleared for the Chinese market half a year earlier than the H200. The approved companies for H200 can buy up to 75,000 chips either directly from NVIDIA or from intermediaries, but the firms reportedly pulled back from making a purchase after getting guidance from the Chinese government.

Reuters says China's guidance was triggered by changes on the US side, but it says those changes remain unclear. It's also worth noting that local Chinese companies have been developing their own chips after the US blocked exports to their country. China has been encouraging local firms to use them in order to stimulate the homegrown chip industry. The Chinese government is also reportedly worried that the H200 chips sold to its companies have hidden vulnerabilities. That's because in order for the US government to legally get its 25 percent cut from H200 sales, the chips have to pass through US territory.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who previously warned the US government that its export restrictions are making his company lose its hold on China, recently flew to Beijing with President Donald Trump to attend a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It remains to be seen whether the trip would lead to China giving local companies the green light to purchase the H200.